Let the Games Begin!!!

As far as I can remember, I was never a big fan of sports.

I never had a favorite soccer team or watched NBA play offs. Believe it or not, after living in Canada for 5 years, I am not even sure how many players a hockey team has!!! However, there is one sports event I have never missed: The Olympics.


I find the idea of the Olympics fascinating. It is a symbol of peace for all 5 continents to come together, put aside their differences and bond for a single purpose. During Olympics all nations come together, enjoying the ceremony, watch the games, learn about other nations and once again remember to share their similarities and celebrate the differences.

Being a feminist, this year’s Olympics games are extra special to me; for the first time in the history of the Games, there will be a female entrant from every competing nation. For example, Saudi Arabia,alongside Brunei and Qatar, has consented to allow female delegates to compete in the 2012 Summer Games.

Women have come a long way since the beginning of the games. In 1900, only a total of 11 women participated in the Olympics (for the very first time!) but as of 2012, every country competing in the July 27-Aug. 12 Olympics will be represented by both male and female athletes.

Joseph Veloce, Mac Engineering grad .

Watch the games and don’t miss out on this very special event!

Join us to cheer for Joseph Veloce, a recent grad of McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering, who is competing in Canada's Olympic track cycling team. 

You can read the story of his life as an Engineering student and a professional athlete here: http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/article/engineering-grad-races-to-olympic-games/ . Also keep up with McMaster athletes in Olympics by visiting http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca/mcmaster-and-the-london-olympics/

I'm so excited for the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies today! Let the games begin!!  ~Mehrdokht

Keeping an Eye on Things

When did it get to be the middle of July!? I remember back in May thinking, "Wow! I have so much time to relax and do nothing!" Well I can safely say that with work and summer school, I have been kept very busy. And that's just the way I like it :)

I have been fortunate enough to be put on a very interesting project at work. As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs I am working with in Dr. Heather Sheardown's chemical engineering lab this summer, and we deal with creating novel ways to treat ocular diseases. My project is dealing with delivery of drugs to the retina, the back portion of the eye, using fibrin gels. If you have taken grade 11 or 12 biology you may recall that fibrin is a protein found in our blood that forms clots when we are wounded to stop bleeding. We are borrowing the principles of fibrin clot formation and are using these fibrin clots to form gels that can could potentially deliver medication to the eye. The picture below shows a fibrin clot I made in the lab. As you can see it's fairly opaque and not ideal for use in the eye, but that's the beauty of experimentation! Now I get to figure out why it looks like this and how to fix it.

Fibrin gel made in the lab combining fibrin and thrombin protein molecules.

When I'm not hard at work, I love to spend my time outside and enjoy the weather! Hamilton is known as the "City of Waterfalls", and with more than 120 waterfalls in the area there's nothing more enjoyable than hiking up the trails to the top of the falls for a picnic and some fresh air. If heights aren't your thing you can always wander through the Royal Botanical Gardens, or even see some exotic birds in the Aviary located near McMaster campus. Or if you just want to beat the heat, Port Dover is only an hour away and the beach there is awesome! For those of you who are adventurous like me, you could always join the McMaster Outdoors Club and go on camping trips around Ontario. A few weeks ago I went on a hiking trip to the Bruce Peninsula, and it was incredible! Such amazing sights and experiences with great people.

All of the trippers posing for a photo atop a cliff along the Bruce Peninsula.

So, whatever you're doing this summer, I hope you're all making the most of it!

~Genna

It Feels like a Fireball Outside

“You’re hotter than a bunsen burner!”

I got that note from the McMaster Engineering Society (MES) representative on Valentine’s Day in my first year of engineering. All the Eng I students in my calculus class got similar notes from the MES, and I remember laughing while everyone compared them. I have to say though, with the heat wave this summer, sometimes I really do feel like I might spontaneously combust.

Relaxing after May@Mac
Open House this year

Luckily, for the past two years I have held Work-Study positions at McMaster. The Work-Study program offers part-time and full-time jobs on campus to help students financially pay for school and alleviate their loans. Tons of positions are available from office assistants to research assistants with profs (like Genna!). Not only do I meet other students and staff members, they keep the buildings wonderfully cool! I’m in the Engineering I Outreach office this summer (I was a Teaching Assistant for L.E.A.P. last summer), and I’ve been starting my mornings with lemonade on my bus ride to the campus to beat the heat. In the school year it is nice taking the bus, because we have the HSR bus pass with our student card; I just have to flash my student ID to board. Stepping off the bus onto campus is one of my favourite parts of the day. McMaster’s campus really is beautiful this time of year!

The flower arrangements on the walkway
 to Burke Science Building (BSB)

As much as I’m enjoying the summer, I can’t help but be excited for fall! It’s a little cooler then, and as a Welcome Week representative (aka ‘Redsuit’), I’ll get to join all the incoming first years for bonding activities like pulling a city bus through the Hamilton streets and cheering Mac on at the football game. Then, if it gets too hot, we can always go for a swim at Gulliver’s Lake for the engineering retreat. It’s a great week: be sure not to miss it!

I hope you are all enjoying your summer. Take some time to have fun in the sun!

~Helen
Software Engineering & Co-op III

Memories of my First Year!

Coming to University could look very scary.

You have no idea what to expect, you have heard all these different stories and have talked to every student or alumni you could reach but yet, facing it yourself is a whole different story.

For some it could be a little more challenging; living away from family for the first time, having English as a second language or being a newcomer in Canada are some of the challenges many students face in their freshman year.

I had all of the above! I came to Canada in 2008 and had only 2 years of high school to learn English. I was pretty terrified of the idea of coming to a new city on my own and entering an unfamiliar community. Even though I was only a 2 hour bus ride away from my family, somehow it felt like they were at the other end of the world.

But don’t let that scare you! Here comes my most important point:  Being a newcomer is not as hard as it looks. The rest of the incoming first year students know as much as you do about the university!  Also, the community is so tight and welcoming that it doesn’t take long before you will fit right in! From the very first day of the frosh week I felt right at home [Did I mention how awesome Welcome Week is? Find out more here: http://studentsuccess.mcmaster.ca/orientation/welcome-week.html]

Mac engineering students have an especially exciting student life.  There are plenty of fun events and lots of clubs to join to help you bond with people who share same interests as you.

Basically, Mac community members know the difficulty of adjusting to a new life style, and they all support making your experience the best it can be, both socially and academically.

After two years as a ‘Mac Eng’ student, I am still as in love with campus as I was the first year. I’m confident that I made the right choice as I pursue my chemical engineering degree. ~ Mehrdokht ('Mary')

Summer's Almost Here!

Hello world!

So much has been going on this summer, I don’t even know where to begin! For the past month and a half I have been working with Dr. Heather Sheardown, one of my chemical engineering professors, in her lab on campus. I have the opportunity to work with graduate students learning from them and working alongside them on their experiments. It has been an incredibly educational experience. Our lab deals primarily with biomaterials and drug delivery to the eye. I have been making various contact lens materials infused with drug, and tested their ability to release drug directly to the eye to treat disease. We do this to increase the effectiveness of the drug in treating disease. It’s really cool!

Here I am volunteering to greet
future students at May@Mac Open House!

I hope you all are excited for summer to arrive! To all you grade 12 students, I hope you didn’t have too hard of a time deciding what school you will attend. If any of you attended our May@Mac Open House last month I hope you enjoyed exploring around campus! Hopefully we were able to convince you to all to come at Mac.  And to all you who did choose McMaster, I can’t wait to meet you in September! I’m an orientation leader for the faculty of engineering this year, so you’ll find me hooting and hollering in my red jumpsuit all Welcome Week long!

If you have any questions, or want to know what to do next in preparing for Mac, visit http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/future/accepted.html for the answers!

Have an amazing summer guys! ~Genna

Almost there...(Paula)

Aloha!

So, officially 4 out of 5 exams done. Let's see...mechanics, then stats, heat transfer, and biomechanics. Like I said before though, spread out over a reasonable period of 11 days. And my last one isn't until Wednesday! So a nice 8 day break, during which time I regrettably am having my wisdom teeth out - have you had yours out? How was it? I am so not looking forward to it. :S

Between my last exam and the start of work, I have a little over a week off so I'm heading to Cuba! Woohoo! Have any of you been? I'm going to Varadero because the beaches are supposed to be b-e-a-utiful :) I can't wait! Writing that last exam, I'll surely only be dreaming of this:



As for work, I'm going on a 16 month internship through the McMaster Co-op program at L3-Wescam, in a manufacturing engineering position. Internships/co-op are really good experiences to get in your undergrad so that when you graduate you'll be really marketable. Also, the co-op program is great because you can join at any time up until the second last year of your degree...so if you're unsure about signing up, you can always wait and see if co-op becomes of interest to you. That's what happened to me!

Anyways, everyone, enjoy the beautiful weather today - 21 and sunny! Too bad I have to get my teeth out this afternoon or I'd go play at the nearby waterfalls in Dundas.

Cheers,
Paula

Last minute fun before exams. (Genna)

Hello world!

Looks like it’s been a few weeks since I shared the goings on of my life! School has gotten a little hectic this time of year, what with term projects wrapping up and last minute assignments the profs just love throwing our way. The bright side is that in less than a month summer begins! I’m quite fortunate this year to only have 4 exams, and they’re all spread out over 3 weeks! It gives me lots of time to study, and not stress out :P

With the end of the term also comes the last minute get together before we all settle down for exams. The Eng Musical ended 2 weeks ago, so the cast, crew, and band of the show decided to have a little get together and go out for sushi:). We had an amazing run, and got lots of positive reviews. Can't wait for next year, it's going to be even better! Check out some shots from behind the scenes below:

The final shot of the show. Isn't it impressive?

The absolutely amazing cast, band, and crew of the 2012 McMaster Engineering Musical!

Some last minute dance rehearsing in the dressing room. Check out those jazz hands!

We even had a giraffe!

Well, I guess I better hit the books. Those biochemistrynotes won’t review themselves!

Cheers!

-Genna