BASc,
MASc, PhD (Waterloo), PEng
Voice: +1 (519) 888-4567 ext. 2602
Fax: +1 (519) 746-4791
Office: DC 2633
Email: wills@uwaterloo.ca
Brief Biographical Sketch
Professor Barry Wills is a member of the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. His scholarly interests include: computer-aided learning, learning technologies, and multimedia design; systems modelling and simulation; design methodologies; and the social impacts of information technologies. He has lectured and published widely in these and other areas.
Professor Wills has earned three degrees in Electrical Engineering, the BASc, the MASc and the PhD. He is also a registered professional engineer in the Province of Ontario. He has received several academic awards including a NATO Advanced Science Institute Fellowship in Computer-Assisted Instruction in 1985.
Since joining the faculty at the University of Waterloo in 1968, Professor Wills has held a variety of administrative positions related to computers and education. Recently he was the Associate Dean of Engineering for Computing and established the Engineering Education Research Centre with the partnership assistance of Digital Equipment of Canada and Apple Canada Inc. He has also served as Associate Chair of the Department for both undergraduate and graduate studies. Professor Wills has been a systems consultant to Bell-Northern Research and a visiting professor at the University of Houston, the University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University.
Professor Wills has a number of interests and activities which complement his scholarly work at the University of Waterloo. He is, for example, the Canadian member of the International Liaison Group for Engineering Education and a member of UICEE, the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education. Starting in 1982, he was one of the original organizers and professors at the Shad Valley Summer Programme for gifted Canadian high school students. Professor Wills is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and the Canadian Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. He is also a jazz pianist and composer, and an avid amateur photographer.
Selected Publications
"Encouraging Collaborative Learning: The C3 Meetings Method", Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE'98), Sackville, New Brunswick, June 24-27, 1998.
Abstract of paper published in the STLHE'98 Conference Guide, pages 75-76.
Invited reviewer for the following book: "The Application of Computer-Assisted Training Programs in Engineering Education." Zenon J. Pudlowski and Roger G. Hadgraft editors, ICEE (1996), ISBN 0 7326 0894 5
"Multidimensional Design Experiences for First-Year Engineering Students." Proceedings of the 1995 World Conference on Engineering Education, October 15-20, 1995, St. Paul, Minnesota USA. Vol. 1, pages 285-288.
(with Jernigan, M.E.). "Introducing engineering and entrepreneurship to outstanding Canadian high school students: The Shad Valley Programmes." Proc. of the ASEE Annual Conference, Edmonton, Canada, pp. 1164-1167, June 1994.
"On the development of first year engineering design experiences." ASEE St. Lawrence Region Conference, Rochester, New York, October 1993.
"Using information technologies in engineering education: New challenges and opportunities." Australasian Journal of Engineering Education 2(1):81-87, 1991.
(with Lennox, W.C.). "Encouraging faculty participation in the exploration of instructional computer technologies: An organizational model." Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Computer-Aided Training in Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain, pp. 120-126, July, 1990.
(with McKone, P.D. and Graham, E.D.). "The Engineering Education Research Centre at the University of Waterloo: Goals, current projects, future directions." (Invited paper) Proc. of the World Conf. on Engineering Education for Advancing Technology, Sydney, Australia, pp. 826-830, February, 1989.
(with Brown, J. and Graham, E.D.). "SMILE: A graphical interface for discrete-event simulation models." Proc. of Computer Simulation in Engineering Education, San Diego, California, pp. 46-50, 1989.
(with Graham, E.D.). "C-SIM: Systems simulation using microcomputers." Proc. of the Int. Conf. on Computer-Assisted Learning in Post-Secondary Education, Calgary, Alberta, pp. 119-124, May, 1987.
(with Graham, E.D.). "On learning the essentials of system simulation." Proc. of the IASTED Int. Conf. on Applied Simulation and Modelling, Montreal, Canada, pp. 81-85, June, 1985.