New director for Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation
Concordia has named a highly regarded innovator with extensive industrial experience to serve as director of the Concordia Institute of Aerospace Design and Innovation (CIADI).
Since 2009, Robert Fews has held the position of Aerospace Special Advisor at Concordia. This role was established within the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science (ENCS) to build on the existing aerospace program and make it more relevant to the current needs of industry.
Fews, through his knowledge of the aerospace industry, has created important research opportunities for both students and faculty, including the development of an aerospace-related Senior Industrial Research Chair.
Aerospace is a signature area of the Faculty, and Fews’s mandate has been to expand industry exposure, enhance curricula, create opportunities for student research and employment, and develop the backbone for a full-grown aerospace institute.
During his two years as Aerospace Special Advisor, a role that will continue, Fews has made important inroads in developing the aerospace program and has played a vital role in promoting the Faculty’s aerospace-related activities and programs internally and externally.
Says Robin Drew, Dean of ENCS, “Dr. Fews has played an important role in the renaissance of CIADI. As the Faculty’s Aerospace Special Advisor, he helped expand and solidify our relationships with industry leaders, both locally and internationally. Under his direction, I am confident that CIADI will blossom into a North American centre for academic and industrial innovation, research and teaching.” Plans are to expand CIADI’s current undergraduate internship program as well as to develop aerospace-related research and curricula.
Fews has had an impressive career spent entirely within the aerospace industry: After completing a five-year apprenticeship with British Aerospace, he went on to work as a structures engineer on the Concorde airliner. He then pursued a PhD in Aircraft Design at Britain’s Cranfield Institute of Technology.
Fews came to Canada in 1978, when he accepted a position as senior staff specialist at Canadair in Montreal (later Bombardier Aerospace). In 1984, he joined Bell Helicopter Textron Canada, where he served as manager of technology until 2002, when he became director of research for the company, a position which he held until coming to Concordia in 2009.
Related links:
• CIADI
• “ENCS Welcomes New Aerospace Advisor” - Journal, March 4, 2010
• Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science