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About
Welcome to the University of Toronto Centre for the Resilience of Critical Infrastructure (RCI).
Mission
The RCI is a hub of expertise in the study of infrastructure resilience that draws together the associated disciplines in the social sciences and management around world-class core engineering expertise in order to advance understanding and practises related to the resilience of critical infrastructure.
Vision
The RCI will be the World’s foremost centre of learning on critical infrastructure resilience, attracting the finest academic and practising minds in the field to progress both the art and science of the profession.
Functions
There are three functions of the RCI: Research, Education and Professional Development and The Sandford Fleming Forum.
Research
The RCI is centred upon a unique structural resilience expertise within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Toronto. This has been gained through leading-edge research that consistently offers some of the most successful and timely solutions to the problems facing structural engineering over the past decades. This rich heritage continues apace, as we work on the current and emergent issues of today and into the future. The RCI research programme has been developed in close partnership with government and industry, in Canada and internationally.
Education and Professional Development
The Department of Civil engineering offers comprehensive undergraduate and graduate programs in Civil Engineering as well as an undergraduate engineering science program in Infrastructure Engineering. Professional development is facilitated through courses, seminars and selected internships. These courses are provided through the Department of Civil Engineering. The seminars and special studies are sponsored by the Department of Civil Engineering, but are also open to the public.
Internships are available primarily for Master’s students and graduates seeking challenging placements with companies engaged in leading edge research.
The Sandford Fleming Forum
The professional forum function is the cornerstone of collective professional competency and has heralded into the professional consciousness most if not all the developments in both the art and science of engineering over the last 300 years. It provides an essential forum for professional discourse and the peer review of new ideas and practises, bringing together professionals from all interested disciplines and sectors to define and progress collective understanding. It is out of this functional area that professional engagement with the public and Government can be pursued to intelligently inform the infrastructure debate within Canada and, by extension, North America. This might be achieved through the publication of independent and unsolicited expert “State of the Nation” reports on each of the critical infrastructure sectors. Impartiality is assured through peer review and is deliberately distinct from aligned and commercial institutes that conduct research and assessments to contract. The Sandford Fleming Forum represents the RCI’s public face.
Stakeholders
- Department of Foriegn Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) Physical Resources Bureau
- Defence Research and Development Canada Centre for Security Science (http://www.css.drdc-rddc.gc.ca/index-eng.asp), through which links are established with equivalent UK and US Government agencies / partners, [Canadian] Critical Infrastructure Protection Community of Practice.
- Department of National Defence (DND) Infrastructure and Environment
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Critical Infrastructure Protection
- Toronto Police Service Public Safety & Emergency Management
- National Research Council – Institute for Research in Construction
- Conference Board of Canada
- Canadian Bankers Association
- Ontario Power Generation
- The RCI also maintains close links with several architectural practices and engineering consultancies with an interest in resilient infrastructure