Faculty Advisors

Faculty advisors provide primary oversight to design teams. This includes, but is not limited to project goals, timelines, budget and safety risks/concerns. Faculty advisors are responsible for signing off on team renewal forms and forwarding any agreements or contracts to APSC Professional Development. All Engineering Design Teams are required to have at least one faculty advisor from within APSC who is a Professor or Professor of Teaching with the Faculty. The advisor will typically be a faculty member of the team’s Host Department. In the case of dual-hosting, there will be an advisor from each Host Department. 

 

Faculty Advisor Change Form Template

 

Responsibilities of the Faculty Advisor

DO

✔️ Provide primary oversight: On key technical and administrative matters like project goals and viability, project budgets and timelines. Most of this is done through the team’s renewal application (Super Application) before submission and through the EDT Lifecycle Process Forms. This ensures the advisor understands and approves of what each party is committing to for the next cycle and sets clear boundaries. Do review and sign off on projects, on the team's renewal forms (SuperApp) and forward any agreements or contracts to APSC PD.

✔️ Review EDT projects and SOPs for risk and safety: Ensure the team has adequate risk-mitigation strategies for all stages of their project (transportation/receiving of building materials, storage, active construction and testing access control & security, and waste management). If you are not a technical expert for a particular subject, please help the team with securing someone who can support with this. Reach out to APSC PD if you have any concerns about a project or activity.

SoPs will act as a written record of the activities that are agreed on by the group and faculty advisor and can be referenced in the case of safety or conduct incidents. The faculty advisor must be listed as a contact in a CAIRS report.


✔️ Communicate: The advisor is expected to meet with the team’s captains at least twice per year - optimally at the start of every term after new members/projects have been determined. It is recommended that the faculty advisor meets and/or communicates with the team regularly, especially for new design teams that are starting from scratch.

✔️ Review space access: The advisor is expected to be aware of space and resource issues and be available to relay requests to the department and/or APSC. This may relate to workspace, storage, transportation, fabrication, testing labs and external resources.

✔️ Advise on funding: The advisor is expected to advise the team (if asked) on funding opportunities such as PAF, review proposals as well as sponsorship strategies. The Advisor will also be required to approve and sign the acceptance of gift-in-kind sponsorships received by team to ensure its value to both the team and the University.

✔️ Review team finances: The FA must review and approve each project's budget, ensuring costs are reasonable and appropriate (and follow all APSC student group spending guidelines), and that the team has enough funding to cover all current and future costs. The advisor will need to sign off on any expense claims submitted by the team members. We have recommended to the teams to submit expense claims once a month.

✔️ Mentor: If the team requests design reviews related to the team’s prototype, or to competition preparations, the Advisor is expected to meet on an ad-hoc basis at the request of the team captain.

✔️ Contact: The advisor is expected to inform the team for any opportunities or other reasons that they may find compelling, e.g., lecturers coming to campus, upcoming conferences, new vendors of relevant technologies, etc.

DON'T

❌ Permit manufacturing or servicing products that go beyond the prototyping stage (i.e. for use or consumption): this includes apps, physical products, structures, etc. This means that the design teams should not engage in the production or provision of products or services intended for actual use or consumption by end-users. Their primary focus should be on creating prototypes or design concepts rather than full-scale production or service delivery.

❌ Permit external bank accounts: Design teams should not establish or maintain external bank accounts separate from the university's financial system. All financial transactions and accounts should be managed through university channels to ensure transparency and compliance with financial regulations.

❌ Permit revenue-generating activities, including selling off old equipment.

❌ Sign NDAs or other agreements: Absolutely zero NDAs can be signed for a design team, and UBC will not sign an NDA on behalf of a design team. Please direct any questions to APSC PD.

❌ Invite high school students or other members of the public (including alumni) to participate in design team activities or visit design team space: Students who graduate in May are considered current students and can participate until August 31 of that year. Alumni may act as consultants, but cannot enter restricted UBC spaces or conduct any prototyping work.

❌ Sign any agreement with an external party: this essentially promises that UBC, and not the design team, is beholden to the agreement.

If you find a team practicing any of the above, please contact Minoli Navaratnam immediately.

Project Activities that Require Support/Management from APSC PD

Contact APSC PD as early as possible—ideally at the start of discussions and once requirements are known—to confirm feasibility. UBC will not sign agreements that include NDAs or require indemnification.

  • Any major changes to timelines or project goals
  • Team or individual student conduct issues
  • Signing anything – competition forms, sponsorship agreements, shipping forms, etc
  • External rental/booking agreements (e.g., for testing purposes) that require UBC sign-off
  • Anything related to insurance
  • International shipping
  • External collaboration agreements with other universities or organizations
  • A request to build anything outside of a designated Team space (e.g. A structure on campus)
  • Outreach/external events – in particular, working with Indigenous communities
  • Projects working with human testing or live cells (e.g., medical devices) - may require REB approval, which is very difficult for Teams

*Notes: Processing may take at least 2-3 months to process after initial request.  Any team or team member who signs agreements or acknowledgements without UBC’s required permissions may face immediate project termination

FAQs for Faculty Advisors

  • How are Engineering Design Team projects different from other independent student group activities or clubs?
    • Unlike other student groups, APSC provides space, a UBC bank account, the UBC brand, and UBC tools/workshops
    • The scope of their projects/activities have been approved by the APSC Dean's Office and APSC owns all risk associated with their activities
  • How are Engineering Design Team projects different from course work, Capstone projects, or research activities?
    • They are not connected to curriculum (credit) or to UBC research activities because students are designated as "volunteers", and so the rules are different for their activities
    • Activities that may be ok in a curricular or research setting may not be ok for a Design Team (eg. Design Teams can never sign a NDA)
       

Responsibilities of the Team

The captain of the Team is expected to be the primary contact to the Advisor.

  • Communication: Requests to the Advisor should be given with ample lead time and be sensitive to the advisor’s research and teaching schedules. Routine matters that can be handled at the administrative level should first be made through the EDT Coordinator and/or APSC PD. Teams must inform their Faculty Advisor when transitioning Captains or important executive members.
  • Initiative: For all the categories listed in “Responsibilities of the Faculty Advisor”, the team is expected to initiate contact. Contact with the Advisor should be restricted to high-level matters.
  • Invitations: The team shall invite the Advisor to periodic meetings, competitions, field trips, tests, etc., that may improve the connection and awareness with the advisor. Even though the Advisor may not always be able to attend, it is important to provide an awareness of ongoing team activities.

How to Approach a Faculty Member

It may be daunting to approach a faculty member and ask them to be an Advisor to your team. It is important to ensure that you have a faculty advisor belonging to each of your hosting departments.

  • Relevance: Consider a faculty member’s area of research. They will likely be able to provide more support to your team if their expertise aligns with your design challenge.
  • Make a plan: Approach the faculty member with a clear plan of your Team’s objective and deliverables. Set up an appointment via email.
  • Make them aware of their role: the preceding section on this page is a good guideline for the role of a faculty advisor. Consider their time commitments and be respectful of them. Clarify expectations regarding support, communication and technical involvement at the start. If you require additional help in contacting a faculty member to be your team’s advisor, please contact the Engineering Teams Coordinator at team.engineering@ubc.
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