We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

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Engineering’s Iron Ring Ceremony: A professional tradition unlike any other

University’s Engineering class of 2019 takes part in sacred event

March 21, 2019

Members of Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science class of 2019. From left: Stephanie Hill (Mechanical Mechatronics Engineering), Jaide Wilkinson (Mechanical Engineering), Pamela Xu Ting She (Mechanical Engineering), Vanessa Villagracia (Mechanical Engineering).

At the conclusion of an engineering student’s degree program, those about to graduate participate in the highly coveted ceremony known as the Ritual of the Calling of the Engineer. It’s a top-secret and time-honoured milestone dating back nearly a century in Canada’s engineering community.

On March 16, over 300 soon-to-be graduates of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology gathered at the Regent Theatre for the closed-room event that resembles a ritualistic celebration one might see in a movie.

Although graduating students from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and the Faculty of Energy Systems and Nuclear Science will receive their formal university degrees at Convocation in June, in many ways, the Iron Ring Ceremony is ‘the’ rite of passage for a young engineer. First held in Canada in the 1920s, the ceremony is similar to the Hippocratic Oath spoken by new physicians.

Graduating engineering students receive a small iron ring to be worn on the end finger of their dominant hand. A physical memento that they made it to the end of their undergraduate journey, the ring serves as a constant reminder to a newly qualified engineer of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession.

Only engineers who already have an iron ring are allowed into the ceremony. Recipients may bring an engineer with at least four years of experience to present their ring to them.