Established on February 28th, 1877, the University of Manitoba is Western Canada’s first university that came into being just seven years after the foundation of the province of Manitoba. This public university, situated in Winnipeg, is Manitoba’s largest university and the only research intensive post-secondary educational institution.
Founded by Alexander Morris as a non-denominational university, this Canadian university was officially opened on June 20th, 1877 in order to award degrees to students graduating from its three founding colleges, namely, the St. Boniface College that is a Roman Catholic College, an Anglican institution - St. John’s College, and the Manitoba College that is run by the Presbyterians.
In 1880, the school granted its first college degree, and has since added a number of colleges to its corporate and associative body. Two years later, the Manitoba Medical College became part of the University of Manitoba. Other colleges of the university include the Methodist Church’s Wesley College, Manitoba College of Pharmacy, Manitoba Agriculture College, St. Paul’s College, Brandon College, and the St. Andrew’s College.
In order to allow the school to do their own teaching, the Legislative assembly of Manitoba changed the University Act in 1901. Four years later, the building in downtown Winnipeg became the school’s first teaching facility with six science professors as its staff. In 1920, the university was the largest in the Canadian Prairies and the fifth in the country.
The university provides advanced technology and knowledge to students interested in the field of robotics. Its Autonomous Agents Laboratory inside the Department of Computer Science has developed several robots, which have competed not only in Canada but globally as well. Among them is the SnoBots, which has competed and won at the FIRA HuroCup 2013 robotics competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
