Engineering dept. receives $10-million endowment

Laurentian University is renaming its engineering department following a $10-million donation from a prominent Canadian banker.

Stan Bharti, chair and CEO of merchant bank Forbes & Manhattan Inc., announced the gift to the school of engineering as part of The Next 50 fundraising campaign.

The campaign aims to raise $50 million for key projects at the school, including the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre; the School of Architecture; the School of Mines; the international accreditation of its Faculty of Management; and an expanded endowment fund for research chairs, fellowships, and scholarships.

In recognition of the gift, the department will now be known as the Bharti School of Engineering at Laurentian University. The $10 million will be invested as an endowment for the exclusive use of the department towards improvements to classrooms and teaching labs, equipment, software, student field trips, internships and co-op placements, scholarships and fellowships for top students, one-time investments to attract top engineering faculty, partial matching of one-time research grants secured by faculty, branding of the school, student recruitment, alumni engagement, career and placement services for engineering graduates, lecture series, and conferences.

Bharti said the gift is an opportunity to give back to the community in which the family lived for many years, and encourage other families to support the fundraising campaign.

“Our family has chosen to invest in Laurentian University because it has an impressive track record and inspiring leadership. We know that our gift will help unlock its incredible potential,” Bharti said in a news release. “I’ve trained and worked as a mining engineer and I really enjoyed giving lectures and interacting with engineering students at Laurentian when I worked for Falconbridge in Sudbury.”

“I see a huge demand for engineers over the coming decade and want to make a difference in the quality of the education available to the next generation of students,” Bharti added. “My family and I look forward to seeing the Bharti School of Engineering thrive as it enhances the student experience and continues to respond to industry needs.”

Laurentian's school of engineering serves more than 400 students studying undergraduate degrees in mining, and mechanical and chemical engineering, and graduate programs at the master's and doctoral levels.