Helloooo February!

With Fireball behind us, and midterm season around the bend, it’s time to pull our socks up, and retreat back to our favourite chairs in Thode Library. For all prospective students, your applications are out! Now comes decision time, and that dreadful waiting period when you check your email and mailboxes all the time to see if you've heard back from any schools.

My friends and I goofing off for the cameras! I'm third from the left.
The guys were being girls and the girls were being guys :P

True to my word though, I’ll first let you know how Fireball went. To begin with, I learned a very important lesson that night. I learned that my sister’s shoes (being a size too big) are actually kind of a big deal when you’re trying to run to catch a bus. I think I have a scar on my foot now. I will never wear shoes too big again. No matter how cute they are!

The 2012-2013 president on the left, Erin,
handing off the "MES president sword"
to next year's president Emily!

 



Other than my shoes… Fireball was a blast! The food was delicious, the people were fantastic, and the outfits were glorious. Emily Au was named the new McMaster Engineering Society president (3rd female in a row I might add), and tons of awards were given out to some amazing students we have here at Mac! If you want to check out some of the photos from that night, they’re posted to the MacEng Society’s website here: http://macengsociety.ca/culture/events/fireball-2013/


Coming up next week is the Engineering Level II Info Fair. At McMaster, all engineering students take a general first year and then apply to the programs of their choice for second year. It is (in my opinion) one of the best aspects to the program. You don’t know how many of my friends changed their minds after first year! The Level II Fair lets first year students speak with professors and upper year students to get a good feel for the programs before they make their choice. We have seven engineering departments, some with different streams such as nuclear engineering (part of engineering physics) or electrical and biomedical engineering. You can add on our optional programs like co-op, management or society too. Check out our programs at: www.eng.mcmaster.ca/departments.html .

MacEng has got some great traditions and a rich student life. If you applied here, and you’re interested in learning a bit more from a student’s perspective, don’t be shy! We’ll be hosting an online chat session on February 25th: http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/future/chat/ . The site will be updated soon. I’ll be online, along with some other students to answer all your questions!

 ~Helen

Interview: Tara on the McMaster Solar Car!

Hi everyone, sorry the last posting was delayed because of exams. I know I talk about school a lot in these posts – it’s kind of why I’m here at Mac! – but there is a lot that goes on outside of classes, too. My friend Tara (a graduating Engineering Physics student, on the right in the picture shown), for example, is really involved with the McMaster Solar Car Project – a team that works together to design and build cars powered only by solar energy, and race against other vehicles from around the world. She answers some questions about her work with them below:

1) When and how did you first get involved with the McMaster Solar Car team?
In mid-March of 2009, I became acquainted with some of the members of the Solar Car team through casual conversation. A few weeks later they mentioned that they planned on doing their theses on the electrical/electro-mechanical sections of the solar car. I found this topic very interesting, and accepted an offer to complete my thesis on this work. I enjoyed the experience of working on the car so much that I have never left the team since.

2) What is your role within the team, and why?
In May 2010 I became one of the managers of the electrical team, co-managing along with another member. I was selected for this role because of my experience with the team through my thesis, active participation throughout the following year, and my ability to direct and delegate. In the meanwhile, one of the projects I took on was initiating an encapsulation process for solar cells. We have a small scale process completed right not and plan to have the full scale process running before the end of this summer.

3) What is the most challenging part of your involvement?
As a manager, the most challenging aspect has been motivating super-busy volunteers to meet a set of deadlines while struggling with funding for projects.

4) How do you balance work on the car with coursework?
Ever since I joined the McMaster Solar Car project, I have found that I have gained more enthusiasm towards my course work and have become stronger at time management. Despite the Solar Car team consuming much of my time, it has made it easier for me to organize myself – perhaps because I have gained a different appreciation for time. The motivation comes from seeing direct application of subjects we have learned about in school, as well as working alongside a strong group of motivated students who are team players and willing to share their knowledge and experience.

...and we're back (sort of)

Sorry for the radio silence there; these last few weeks and the next two have been and will be insanely busy (ROBOTS).

I asked my friend Evan (also in Engineering Physics) a few questions about his final year inquiry, a research project that students in the Engineering & Society and Engineering & International Studies programs undertake in their final year. I'm presenting my own inquiry tomorrow, so time to work on that some more! Feel free to leave a comment or question below.

1) How would you describe your inquiry project?

I am proposing an analogy which says that the e-reader is related to the book like the mp3 player is related to the song. I am using a comparative approach to try to show how my findings are consistent, or inconsistent, with that analogy in an attempt to better understand my central question.

2) What is your central question?

Why has the adoption of e-readers into the consumer market made so little an impact compared to mp3 players?

3) Who are you working with to learn more about your research?

My supervisor is Dr. Qiyin Fang, who is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Physics. The inquiry topic that I wanted to pursue reminded me of a project that I completed in a course on optical instrumentation, which he taught.

4) Why did you choose the Engineering & Society program?

Throughout high school, I often thought of my communication skills, especially public speaking, as one of my weaknesses. I elected to complete the Engineering and Society option because I thought it would improve my aptitude in this area. I am very satisfied with my decision.

How one work term changed all of my plans

As I said in my last post, I have post-graduation plans! After doing a lot of hard thinking and program-comparing throughout the fall, I've decided to return to McMaster this September for graduate studies, pursuing a Master's of Applied Science. I'm excited to share because I submitted my online application today, and I worked on the supporting documents over the holidays so now I just need to make sure everything arrives at the department. It's funny how much I've changed in the four and a half years since starting undergraduate...I entered with absolutely no interest in doing graduate studies, and now I can't think of anything luckier than being paid to learn.

The turning point for me - and, to be honest, one of the happiest surprises of my life - arrived while working in Ireland on a co-op term. I was participating in an undergraduate research program at the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute (part of Dublin City University) in the summer of 2009, and I helped a researcher produce micro- and nano-channels for fluidics testing (the interactions between surfaces and fluids change at scales this small). Eventually, the channels were to be used for carrying biological samples in a device called a lab-on-a-chip. I had to test different materials to find the best one for stamping the channels (i.e. good reproduction of dimensions), and even though I wasn't passionate about microfluidics, I still couldn't believe how lucky I was to just learn, and have that be my job!

What completely changed my perspective was seeing an institute with connections to industry; before, I had thought that research was only learning for the sake of gathering knowledge (i.e. material properties like hardness when you change the composition) and hadn't bothered to learn otherwise. As it turns out though, many research groups work with companies to make the best use of their engineering, production, and marketing knowledge. I have to admit that travel had been my main motivation in applying for the program, but in the end my first research experience ended up having a huge influence on my goals and post-grad decisions.

Exam time!

Exams can be pretty stressful and this year is no exception, especially since I dive right in without much of a break. My last day of classes was yesterday, and my first exam (Semiconductor Devices) is tomorrow. I have four in total this term. I have mixed feelings about exams - on the one hand, I like that I get to focus on studying and learning on my own time, without worrying about assignments due. On the other hand - they're exams! And it can be hard to settle down for a study session on a subject that I find difficult or not very interesting (Electromagnetism being a case in point. I like the cool stuff it does; I just don't like studying it).

After my exams end on the 16th (pretty early this year for my schedule), I'm staying around in Hamilton for another week to do some work on my year-long courses that don't have exams. I'm still learning how to model my engineering design project in an advanced software program, and I need to get caught up on a lot of research for my society inquiry paper. Finally, I need to prepare my report for a lab course, which is due the first week of next term. It's an engineering physics course with different modules according to your stream, and mine was the fabrication of a silicon solar cell! It was pretty exciting because my group produced the highest efficiency in the class, so I'm trying to leverage that for a summer opportunity that I'm sending an application for soon.

Speaking of applications, the next time I write I'll have some exciting news about my post-undergraduate plans! Nothing's official yet (I need to submit the application first! Happening after exams) but I'm excited to have a goal and an idea of how to get there. In the meantime, good luck with the end of classes for the year! And if you're in Southern Ontario and getting snow feel free to send some of it this way; I love the stuff and we've only had a sprinkling of it so far.

P.S. I'm a size 4 for my Kipling ring. :)