Polytechnique Montréal
IN-25: Innovation B

The Poly-Out student committee, Polytechnique Montréal and Ubisoft, in collaboration with the Polytechnique Student Society (AEP) and three other student committees (PolyCultures, Poly-L : Leadership pour ells and Poly- φ), presented the first Diversity in Engineering Week, from February 11th to 15th, 2019. This student initiative aimed at promoting and encouraging actions that foster equality, diversity and inclusion at Polytechnique as well as within the engineering professions and society as a whole. It is particularly meaningful in an engineering university, where every day future engineers, professors and personnel of all genders work towards changing the world as they develop their full potential on both professional and personal levels. Diversity in Engineering Week is just one of many actions put forth in an action plan to fight against homophobia and transphobia, developed in 2018 by Polytechnique’s Office of Academic Affairs and Student Life, Student Services and Poly-Out. This action plan is aligned with the orientations of Polytechnique Montréal’s 2018-2023 Strategic Plan and follows the Government of Quebec’s action plan to fight against homophobia and transphobia (2017-2022). The week’s activities included a series of conferences on various subjects, such as women in STEM, diversity and entrepreneurship, and diversity as a competitive advantage. In terms of visibility, the main event on Facebook generated 11,000 page views, in addition to the 500 – 9,000 page views generated by each of the 9 individual events. One specific innovation was an exhibition showcasing diversity at Polytechnique, where student pictures and brief testimonials were exposed in the most frequented hallway of the university. These portraits illustrated not only the diversity of our student body but also allowed the students to express their hopes of changing the world through their practice of the engineering profession. Overall, we estimate that several thousand people, inside and outside the institution, were exposed to the issue of diversity.