Deadlines

September 2023 admission The Master of Engineering/Technology Entrepreneurship & Innovation programs are now temporarily unavailable for the 2023/2024 Academic year and are no longer taking applications.

International applicants are encouraged to apply early as the visa application process may take 3 months.

Application Checklist

Step 1: Click on the link above to open your application with McMaster University. Alternatively, please click here.

Step 2: Answer all application-related questions.

Step 3: Register for your online interview (Kira) and ensure that you complete the $60 payment. Note that the $60 is in addition to your $110 application fee. They are separate charges.

• The registration and payment link are embedded in your application questions.

Step 4: Gather, and upload all required documents.

• Your current resume or CV, including academic and professional experience
• Your clearly written Statement of Interest (This is a letter explaining your interest in the program, at a maximum of 2 pages).
• Recent IELTS or TOEFL scores (within the last 2 years) required for international students. Minimum IELTS score 6.5 overall (minimum requirement 5.5 in reading and writing and 6 in listening and speaking). Minimum TOEFL score is 88. Note that if your medium of instruction was English and this is documented on your transcripts, you do not need to submit an ELP test.
• Transcripts from all post secondary institutions you have attended.
• Please note that all documents must be uploaded before application submission. CV, SOI, IELTS/TOEFL and Transcripts are uploaded in the same section of the application.

Step 5: Add Academic Referee contact information.

• Contact information for 2 Academic References must be entered in online application. Referees will be contacted via our electronic referencing system
  • Academic references are to come from instructors most familiar with your academic work.
  • In cases where an applicant has been away from academic study for 5 or more years, we will consider one professional reference.
  • Please note that we do not accept reference letters uploaded by the applicant.

Step 6: Pay $110 application fee, and submit application.

• Only submit your applicationonce all the above documents have been uploaded, you have entered contact information for both academic references, and you have paid your Kira fee.
• *Applications will not be reviewed unless all items noted above are submitted at the time of application*.

Step 7: Complete your Kira interview.

• Applicants will be sent a link to complete their Kira interview within one week of application submission and Kira fee payment.
• Applicants will not receive a link unless they have fully submitted their application, and have submitted the $60 Kira fee payment.

Step 8: You will be contacted if there are any issues with your application. Please do not email about the status of your application. Applicants will be contacted once a decision regarding the application has been made.

• Please note that if you are accepted to one of our programs, you will be required to pay a non-refundable $500 deposit. This deposit is non-refundable if you withdraw your acceptance.

Important Notes:

• Applications will not be reviewed until all required documents are uploaded, the referees have responded, and the Kira online interview has been completed. All applications must be completed in full in advance of the application deadlines in order to be considered.
• Official transcripts are not required unless an applicant is granted an offer of admission. Documentation sent via post will not be considered for your application.
• Applications will not be considered until we receive copies of transcripts noting grades up to at least Term 7 of your undergraduate studies.

Tuition and Fees

Full-time Tuition & Fees (2021-2022)
Please view the per-term fees here.

Expected Full-time Tuition & Fees (2022-2023)
Domestic: $3240 per term                 

International: $15,015 per term

*The program requires 5 terms of full-time study.

The University reserves the right to correct typographical errors or to adjust the Tuition and Fees schedule at any time it deems necessary.

Other Fees:

• Application Fee: $110.00
• Online Interview Fee (Kira Talent): $60.00
• Non-refundable deposit upon acceptance: $500.00

IELTS/TOEFL: International students are required to present a minimum IELTS score of 6.5 overall (minimum requirements 5.5 in reading and writing and 6 in listening and speaking). Minimum TOEFL score is 88.

Admission Requirements

Students apply with a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) are directed to apply for the Master’s in Engineering, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (M.E.E.I), while students with a Bachelor in non STEM fields, are encouraged to apply for the Master’s in Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation (M.T.E.I). 

In addition to the general requirements for entry into a graduate program, all applicants must hold a four-year undergraduate degree or equivalent, with at least a B- average (equivalent to a McMaster 7.0 GPA out of 12) in the final year in all courses in their discipline. 

Candidates must be enrolled on a full-time basis and are expected to complete the degree in 20 consecutive months of study. Students are admitted for September.

Prospective applicants who did not attain the required standing in their undergraduate degree, but who have at least four (4) years of relevant work experience, should discuss their situation with the Program Lead. If the experience is deemed sufficient, the Program Lead may then recommend an interview. Evidence of ability to do graduate work will still be required. (See Sections 2.1.1 Admission Requirements for Master’s Degree and 2.1.5 Admission of Students with Related Work Experience or Course Work beyond the Bachelor’s Degree in the Graduate Calendar.)

McMaster students may receive advanced standing for up to two courses (note that a maximum of two 600-level courses can count towards a SEPT graduate program) with the approval of the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies.

Bea Alexa Sojor, Emei (Crystal) Tian, Jiayi Miao, Mirabel Ehirim

Program: Master of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Project name: Tango Buy

Project impact

Tango Buy is a mobile app connecting small scale local farmers and specialty shop owners with customers in larger urban centres. The platform is the result of a team-based project for the Master of Engineering/Technology Entrepreneurship & Innovation (MEEI) program. 

Tango Buy addresses the distribution infrastructure for smaller local producers without the means to get their products to market, and delivers authentic experiences between vendors and clients in the form of a digital farmer’s market. 

The platform’s social component drives community building by encouraging users to interact. Curated supplier profiles drive the feeling of shared experience and exchange between vendor and customer.

The Tango Buy team is engaged with MEEI program instructors and mentors to address the platform’s humanizing elements, developing detailed user maps to show interaction between vendor, consumer, and Tango Buy in the app.

“There is really a lot to say about how the professors helped us. Paul (Chipperton) pressed us to connect with real farmers with real problems. We contacted 400+ suppliers initially and remain connected with 40. We talked to these suppliers and tailored our solution to their needs. It really took us out of our comfort zone.”

The MEEI program’s emphasis on iteration through prototyping, and focus on user-focused engineering design, will ensure that the process of developing Tango Buy is as informative and useful as any success the platform may have.

A UI design prototype for Tango Buy is in its initial stages, with a full prototype to follow closer to project completion.

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Michelle Ragany, Nazli Bostandoust, and Ruben Biack

Program: Master of Technology Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Project name: Kinisi Technologies 

Project impact

In the sport of rowing, posture is strongly correlated to performance. Kinisi Technologies, incubated in the MTEI program, improves the performance of elite rowers by helping them to understand key movements in relation to their posture. Measurement occurs via a non-intrusive device on the athlete’s body that is linked to a mobile application. 

The team hopes that successfully piloting Kinisi Technologies in the sport of rowing will allow its data-powered telemetric technology to be adapted to a range of other sports. 

The project aims to improve the quality of athlete performance and wellbeing through an unintrusive device linked to an app. In rowing, posture is strongly correlated to performance, and the team aims to help athletes understand their movement with each stroke. After supporting rowers with their performance, they hope to branch into other sports to provide athletes with data powered improvement. They will continue to develop the startup in the Forge Startup Survivor Program. 

Preparing for success

Michelle Ragany

The MTEI program’s emphasis on technical skills and knowledge is a perfect complement to Michelle’s business education. The program’s startup-style learning environment encourages Michelle and her team to actualize their technology and further develop Kinisi Technologies as a business. 

“The advisors that support the student teams are knowledgeable and provide support and guidance along the development stage. We are presented with opportunities to secure funding for our ventures, and overall I feel the experience will allow us to successfully launch our startup.”

Nazli Bostandoust

Nazli enjoys the MTEI program for its focus on working towards entering the real business world, and with having the support from  mentors and advisors. The opportunity to participate in different pitch competitions and establishing Kinisi Technologies as a real company is an exciting process.

Ruben Biack

Ruben appreciates that the MTEI program is providing him with new skills for working within the technology sector. He is gaining a greater understanding of the many nuances that come with working in a real business environment. Coming from a business program, all the work he conducted was theoretical.

“This program is allowing me to gain greater insight into what it takes to be an entrepreneur entering the industry.”

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Yara Abdeen, Krutartha Joshi, Omkar Kelkar, and Faizaan Shaikh

Program: Master of Engineering Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Project name: TaleTeller 

Project impact

Yara’s TaleTeller project emerged from a brainstorming workshop held in the early days of her time in the MEEI program. The TaleTeller platform helps people document their life stories and share the resulting book with loved ones. 

After formally pitching TaleTeller in class, Yara recruited three classmates to her team. Her partners proved pivotal to the platform’s success, bringing a diversity of ideas and experiences to the incubation process.

Following multiple iterations, TaleTeller launched as a website that lets clients interact with a staff of writers and designers. Long term, the group hopes for an app that connects with smart home assistants that enable dictation and collation for the more elderly among its authours. 

Preparing for success

MEEI program professors guided Yara and her team through the startup process. They provided continuous mentorship for the group, and helped them to build an entrepreneurial toolkit that included networking with like-minded people. 

“The MEEI program was also very helpful in helping us establish connections with professionals and experts in the field,” says Yara.

Yara will graduate from the MEEI program in 2021. In addition to working on advancing TaleTeller’s technology and connecting with investors, she works at Al Nayzak- a science and innovation lab.

Students in the MEEI program must complete 10 courses (30 units), plus two 0-unit seminar courses.

• 7 core courses (21 units)
• 2 technical electives (6 units)
• 1 cross-disciplinary elective (3 units)

The core module courses are:

• SEP 793 / Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification
• SEP 773 / Leadership for Innovation
• SEP 753 / Enterprise Opportunity Development
• SEP 755 / Business Launch and Development
• SEP 770 / Total Sustainability Management
• SEP 794 / Emerging Innovation Project
• SEP 790 / Emerging Technologies for Engineering Enterprise Innovation

Those students who have exceptional technical backgrounds may consult the Program Lead to request an
exemption for SEP 790. If approved, the student will choose an additional technical or approved cross-disciplinary
elective to replace SEP 790.

All full-time candidates are required to successfully complete:

• SEP 771 / W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology Practitioner’s Forum, Part I
• SEP 771 / W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology Practitioner’s Forum, Part II

Technical Electives

All students in the Master of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation program must complete 6 units of elective
courses. Students may choose any course in the Faculty of Engineering as an elective.

Students with an exceptional entrepreneurship project may obtain permission from the Program Lead to complete the
following course towards 3 units of their elective requirements.

• SEP 795 / Entrepreneurship Project

Cross-Disciplinary Elective Course

All students in the Master of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation program are required to complete one half
course (3 units) which should be selected from the following approved cross-disciplinary elective list.

• SEP 701 / Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis: Frameworks and Models
• SEP 709 / Emerging Issues, Technology and Public Policy
• SEP 777 / Cyber-Physical Systems and Industry 4.0
• SEP 729 / Manufacturing Systems
• SEP 731 / Lean Six Sigma for Engineering
• SEP 760 / Design Thinking

W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology strives to offer a full complement of courses every academic year; some of the course listed here are currently being reviewed. Their offering is subject to the pending internal approval.

MEEI/MTEI Courses Relevant to Project

Term 1 (Fall)

SEP 793: Entrepreneurial Opportunity Identification – an intensive introduction to the entrepreneurial and innovation process in which students explore societal and market needs and identify promising venture themes.

SEP 790: Emerging Technologies for Engineering Enterprise Innovation – a survey of contemporary technology concepts to provide students with a baseline of fluency for project ideation.

Term 2 (Winter)

SEP 753: Enterprise Opportunity Development – the continuation of the core MEEI/MTEI course sequence that focuses on market validation and business models.

Term 3 (Spring-Summer)

SEP 794: Engineering Innovation Project – mandatory project course for all MEEI/MTEI students to advance solution development in original projects or to work on a project concept sourced from the McMaster research community, or the community at large.

Term 4 (Fall)

SEP 755: Business Launch and Development – the final concept course in the core sequence that deals with the frameworks and details of commercialization and venture launches.

SEP 795: Engineering Entrepreneurial Project – a continuation of the Engineering Innovation Project group for those groups exhibiting exceptional potential of their project. Requires approval of the instructor.

Types of Projects

There is no single model for entrepreneurship or innovation and the MEEI/MTEI program offers students several possible paths for their major projects. Typically, students will form project groups within the first term and through their coursework and with the guidance of faculty members, select or be assigned a suitable path. The following are the typical options:

Original invention. We encourage students to creatively apply their technical experience and knowledge to conceive of novel approaches to addressing significant market needs. This path is well suited for those students who have a strong combination of practical technical skills and an ambition to launch a new company. Students working through this path will be in an excellent position to continue their work past graduation into the incubation, pitch competition, or investment seeking process. Typically these projects will require students to take both project courses.

McMaster IP Licensing Office (MILO). These projects start with pre-existing technology invented by research groups at McMaster whose IP is managed by the MILO office. Topics often related to technologies and solutions to improve health, environment, or advanced industrial applications. Students benefit from working with a more mature technology that has already enjoyed some level of functional validation, and being part of a world-class team that includes global experts in key fields. Typically these projects will require students to take both project courses.

McMaster community project. From time to time, McMaster faculty or other internal stakeholders will conceive of a venture or invention concept that requires one or more of a rigorous value and market potential assessment requiring detailed market characterization and competitive analysis, secondary and primary research, and product/solution enhancements. However, unlike MILO projects, these will likely come from more informal sources that reflect faculty or stakeholder interests but not necessarily academic research. These projects can be in either one or two courses depending on complexity of the challenge.

Broader community project. Similar to the McMaster community projects, but sourced from non-McMaster stakeholders such as companies or not-for-profit organizations. Students will work with the Community Relations group within the Booth School to identify potential projects and to establish appropriate outcomes. These projects can be in either one or two courses depending on complexity of the challenge.

Advisors and Mentors

All student groups will have a primary academic advisor who will provide the principal guidance for the progression of the project milestones and outcomes. The advisor may also procure the contribution of other McMaster experts, or industry/community experts in an advisory or mentoring capacity thereby connecting students to a valuable professional network for the project and professional and career development past graduation.

Partners

Mentorship is core to the Master of Engineering/Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation curriculum. 

Early in the program, you will be expected to find your own mentors from the local business community and develop a working relationship with them. They would help you by sharing insights through your business development process. It’s a formal relationship that includes a clearly written agreement – your mentors will also become part of your project review committee.

The Forge is the Startup Incubator for McMaster University and Hamilton Region. 

The ME/TEI program has a close relationship with The Forge, and they are counted as one of the community resources available to our students. They host events and facilitate networking opportunities that students are able to attend. The Forge is located inside the McMaster Innovation Park.

The McMaster Innovation Park is a co-location facility for startups and businesses that are working to commercialize innovative products and services. 

The MIP also hosts events and networking opportunities open to students. Many of the businesses that were born of the ME/TEI program secured their footings working from the MIP. Those that continued to grow graduated to their own facilities from here.

European Innovation Academy

EIA presents an incredible opportunity for selected students to join fellow entrepreneurs from around the world in Portugal or Calgary in Summer 2020, and spend an intensive period of time developing innovative ideas with global teams. 

Facilities

Early design stages prototyping lab (ETB 539) 

Here, you’ll find tools for 3D-conceptual prototyping with simple materials like cardboard, foamcore, paper, and modelling clay, and other similar materials that are easy to work with using tools like markers, craft knives, glue and tape.

Rapid Prototyping lab (ETB 122) 

When it comes time to create a more resilient prototype, this room is equipped with 3D printers and machining equipment like milling machines and lathes. You will develop your skills and comfort working with these tools to make your design vision into an operational prototype in metal or plastic.

Virtual Reality Lab (ETB 534)

When the best way to prototype something is virtual, use this lab to craft and explore your idea in virtual reality. This lab is accessible to graduate students in the M.E/T.E.I., M.Eng.Design programs in the W Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology. The lab is equipped with workstations and VR headsets to use for developing and reviewing your work.

CAD/CAM computing network

Laptops are great for portable productivity, but they’re not as powerful as a dedicated workstation for complex design work. The W Booth School of Engineering Technology and Practice has implemented an advanced mainframe configured to do the “heavy lifting” of CAD/CAM computing. While connected to the network, you are able to work on your own laptop while offloading much of the processing workload to the powerful server computer.

Thank you for your interest in McMaster University Faculty of Engineering. Please fill out the form below, and we will connect with you to answer all of your questions.