I was interested in the foundation years where I got to explore everything before specializing in the BME (Biomedical Systems Engineering) major.

In terms of academics, I did the AP program for core science, math, and English. It was hard transitioning to EngSci. Because of online school, I hadn’t written an in-person exam for three years. Academics is really different, because in high school, the goal is to know everything, but in EngSci, you have to accept not knowing everything when going into tests. Your grades will drop numerically, but you learn a lot more, because the EngSci curriculum is unique and you see connections between courses. You see linear algebra in programming courses, and you use MATLAB in CIV (civil engineering) courses.

In terms of my living situation, I used to live at home with my parents, which was easy. In first year, I rented with my brother, who is also in EngSci. It is a big adjustment living away from parents, because nobody is telling you to do the dishes, to eat, or to go outside. It is empowering, but you must be responsible for yourself. One nice thing was that I lived in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), so I could go home whenever I wanted to. However, I didn’t do this much because I was busy.

In terms of social life, I was used to small classes of around 30, so I sort of knew everyone. EngSci is a close-knit community, but you won’t know everyone in the program. You could choose to be the person sitting at the back, but you can also get involved and meet a lot of people.

Transitioning from high school, looking at past exams and learning test taking skills can help you get high marks. Midterms add up to a high percentage of your final mark, so you should invest in them. If you are comfortable in the exam room, that really helps with your marks. Try to understand everything as you go. This isn’t always possible, but if you don’t, try to clear up things as soon as possible, that inhibits you from learning concepts later in the course. You also can’t ask professors if you’re cramming at the very last moment. Use online forums, because people ask great questions there, and you can also answer them to test your knowledge.

I made most of my friends from F!rosh. Everyone is a new environment and you get to meet cool people. Outside of that, you can connect with people you sit with in lectures, join extracurriculars, or simply reach out to people.

I am part of the Human Powered Vehicles Design Team (HPVDT). It is good for first-years because they do a breadth of projects. Currently they are focused on developing human-powered aircraft. They accept everyone without a rigorous application process and you can commit as much as you want. I learned a lot of technical skills, such as building and using SolidWorks. You don’t learn everything in school; you apply and learn different skills outside of that. However, I would caution people against overcommitting. First-year EngSci is a big change, and you shouldn’t feel like missing out because you’re not joining as many clubs as you should. Some do a lot, some do none, and it’s about finding what’s a good balance for you. Outside of Engineering, I also enjoy running.

My favourite course is CIV102. It was the most challenging course, and it took the most time. However, seeing the professors and teaching team put in their effort, it also motivates me, and it feel great to be in an environment where they want me to succeed. Even though I won’t go into civil engineering, I like how it’s all focused on applications – look at the buildings around you – and there are weekly problem sets and quizzes which are helpful to make sure you are always on track.

Another of my favourite courses is MAT185. They give you trivial questions computationally, which is good because I am bad at mental math. It is a proof-based course, and when you have an answer you know is right, it is fun to be able to show why, and have it be indisputable. Linear algebra also has lots of applications, which we went over in the course.

Sleep more! It makes everything better for you, not just in school, but it makes waking up and talking to people nice. Now, I don’t care if I got a slightly lower mark in a CIV quiz because I slept for an extra hour! Don’t get too caught up in the moment. You don’t need to go all out in first year. If you feel caught up, give yourself a break before things get worse. EngSci will be really fun, and maybe you’ll see me in the Common Room!

Hi, I’m Andrew Magnuson, an incoming third-year EngSci Student.

As a person interested in AI, it was honestly a tough choice between this and a computer science program. I ended up choosing Engineering Science because I wanted to get more experience with the many engineering applications my later ML [machine learning] work might be applied to, while still getting a close focus on AI through the Machine Intelligence option. I also figured that, since a lot of my previous AI learning has been through online sources, that I could similarly bolster my knowledge on the side during the first two years.

I’d say my social life is pretty ok?! Having free time has become much more of a deliberate effort, though. After many, many years of my school struggling to get me to use a scheduling app, it seems uni has finally made it necessary. I find that scheduling time where I work on weekly or biweekly assignments, while also scheduling time to meet with friends or chat after classes helps keep everything organized and removes some stress from the massive workload. It’s also useful to plan to get stuff done early. I say this not because I’m an early bird, but because not doing so has very bad consequences down the line (plus, I can use it to get ahead on the courses I enjoy most).

I learned a lot about how to manage a team. Most of my previous programming work has been in relative isolation – I’d spent time making personal projects, small websites, AI datasets and implementations, but had never had to communicate these ideas with others during the development process. I had also never had to manage the tasks and roles of multiple people working on a singular goal. There were many new questions I had to tackle: how to split up work, how to remove conflicts in code, or how to ensure the focus of the project was in the right directions. As a Director, I had to work on all this, and found that many concepts from Praxis came about when looking for solutions to these problems.

Fun! My team is fantastic, and we really elevated the software beyond anything I could’ve made on my own. We came up with countless interesting ideas – UI solutions, modifications to the original evolutionary algorithm, unique solutions for the architecture of the model, new papers in the field to read… it was good fun. We also booked weekly meetings in Gerstein (a U of T library) where we could work together in person on problems, which helped us feel more tightly knit as a group.

Definitely try to get involved! In my first year I unfortunately didn’t join any, and really regretted that as I went into second year. Clubs open up applications over the summer and during early Fall term, so definitely keep an eye out! I’d also recommend reaching out to upper years in the clubs or attending their showcases if at all possible – they’ll often have plenty information on how to get involved or learn more about their work.

I’ll meet up with my high school friends at U of T every once and a while. It’s pretty nice to see the campus from a different perspective; spending all this time in the Engineering section of U of T oftentimes has you forget how many other buildings there are on campus. I especially love when I get the opportunity to visit the Earth Sciences building – the greenhouse is beautiful!

Despite the brutal exam, I really enjoyed ECE253 [Digital and Computer Systems]! The weekly labs were a fantastic way to get hands– on experience with the topics we were learning – as we learned about logical gates and latches, we also implemented them on an FPGA with physical switches and 7 segment displays. The course does a great job of laying out the material in a clear and sequential manner, though I found my success in the course was mostly due to my interest and experimentation with the material. Toying around with both SystemVerilog and Assembly in order to make various projects gave me the creative boost I needed during second –year, while also allowing me to refine and expand my skills in both languages. For example, when I did some work recreating a 2A03 chip in SystemVerilog, I learned tons more about how to do various frequencies of clocks as well as send variable voltage signals out of the FPGA to a speaker.

I think the course I’ve had the most challenging relationship with is Praxis. As a first-year design course, it presents a large chunk of terminology and concepts that do not have much anchoring in your previous knowledge. What this means is it’s hard to elucidate exactly what is missing in your understanding of concepts. You may think you understand a term just fine, then use it in a midterm or tutorial and find that your understanding was slightly off. Over the various iterations of the course throughout EngSci, I found the most effective strategy to overcome this was speaking to the TAs or professors. They are often very willing to help explain concepts, and you have the opportunity to ask example questions or review work with an expert in the domain.

You can look online to see if there are any professors who are hiring students. I simply looked up cool people I wanted to work with. What I have found to work best for me is cold emailing profs. I looked through Vector Institute members and their webpages, and figured out what I wanted to apply for. I initially had a long list of people I wanted to work with and had to take some time to condense my list. It’s important to find people you want to work with and that their work interests you.

Once I had this list, I started emailing professors – it’s always good to start early, around December or January. Use well-crafted cover letters. When I looked up “how to make a nice cover email,” I found that there were many templates. One thing I would say is that professors are regular humans too. When emailing them, make sure it’s formal, but also bring in your own personality. First impressions matter! Also, some labs get many emails from EngScis, so be sure to mention things outside of the degree too. Another tip: email graduate students that work there and get to know what they’re doing in the lab and if it interests you.

Have fun!

I chose EngSci because I was unsure what engineering major I wanted to pursue when I was applying for university programs. EngSci offered an opportunity to learn about majors that I found interesting before committing to one.

The transition from high school to university was very different for me than what it will probably look like for you because I had my first year online. For me, the main difference I found was in the workload. I wasn’t used to a six-course workload each semester and learning how to balance the work for each class alongside leaving time for extracurriculars and friends was difficult for me. What mainly helped me in my transition was time management and prioritization of important tasks. At the beginning of school, I tried to do every single practice question and read all the textbooks alongside going to class, which wasn’t feasible for me. I slowly realized that actually taking time to understand the material and listening in lectures worked just as effectively as doing all the extra work I was doing before. It’s important to use first year as a time to understand how you learn best rather than focusing on just your grades. Learning how you learn will become a pivotal skill throughout university and in your future career.

My next tip would be to not struggle alone. If you need help with a subject or a topic ask the people around you, whether it’s friends, TAs, or a professor. You are not alone and you don’t need to struggle alone. There are many people around to help you out whenever you need it!

This year I am the co-president of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) and the co-chair for Skule Patrol during F!rosh week! In the past, I’ve been a part of the conference team for Model UN, UTMIST (University of Toronto Machine Intelligence Student Team), and EngSoc Directorships. During the school year, I usually work a part-time job at the Athletic Centre as well. The way I balance extracurriculars, academics, and my social life is by creating doable schedules for myself. I often plan out my week in advance and make sure to prioritize leaving some time for friends and myself.

One piece of advice I would tell my first-year self is to not compare myself to other students around me. The transition to university looks different for everyone and comparison only adds unnecessary stress. In addition, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, so instead of focusing on my weakness, I should’ve been proud of my personal strengths. University provides an opportunity for you to better understand yourself, which is difficult to do if you are constantly comparing yourself to the people around you. Having this advice would’ve helped first-year me focus on myself rather than those around me.

Hatchery is an incubation program offered at U of T that provides you with a space and resources to develop your start-up idea. To join, you have to fill out an application and participate in some interviews either with a team or alone (if you have just an idea and are looking for a team). Throughout the summer, Hatchery provides opportunities to talk to investors and business professionals to build a business model while you are working on your start-up. In the end, your team presents your pitch, and a select number of start-ups are chosen to be funded during the year. I participated in the program after my second year with other EngScis to work on an idea that I found interesting. I was also looking for an opportunity to develop my coding skills, which the start-up provided for me. Personally, Hatchery provided a unique experience for me to learn about how start-ups are formed and the early stages of their development. If you have an idea during your time at U of T and want to work on developing it, Hatchery would be a great place to start with it!

Like many other students I chose EngSci because I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted to study. Coming out of high school, I barely knew what engineering actually meant. I wanted the opportunity to meet people with somewhat different interests and career paths while also keeping multiple doors open for me to explore, and EngSci let me do that!

The transition from high school to university is truly different for every individual. I was fully remote my first year due to COVID, which definitely provided a different set of challenges.

One thing I struggled with and still struggle with is not tying how much I enjoy something to how well I did. In high school, I liked that I was good at sports, academics, and clubs. In university, I was suddenly surrounded by a larger group of students where a lot of them were also good at those things. Suddenly, I couldn’t be the best at everything and I started disliking things that interested me but I was bad at.

So one tip I would give is to try not let things like grades and results take away from how you felt during the whole experience. A bad test, or even a bad class might happen but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to explore an area if it interests you. While it can feel scary, it’s normal to be bad at things that excite you or good at things that you don’t like. Don’t chase something just because it seems easy right now, find things that you are curious about and excite you.

Currently I’m one of the co-presidents of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) – U of T Chapter, and a member of the competitive dragon boating team at U of T, Iron Dragons. Previously I was a part of Brew of T, Blue Sky Solar Racing, and F!rosh. My strategy for balancing multiple aspects of my life is to regularly reevaluate how I’m spending my time and identify if I’m having regrets about those choices. Most things are trade-offs and everybody has different priorities so I don’t think there is a hard and fast rule about how to balance everything. Sometimes school might take priority and other times your hobbies or social life. If the way you are spending your time reflects what goals you are currently working towards, I think that’s the right balance for you.

Don’t be afraid of change. One piece of advice I would tell myself is to be really curious about the world around you. It’s normal to have plans for how you want your life to go, but you change and oftentimes what you want changes. Be open to new experiences, learn from the people and about the opportunities around you, and oftentimes you find yourself on a totally different path than where you started.

I worked as a software research student at Princess Margaret Hospital for a year after 1st year. Specifically, I worked with consumer-grade neuroimaging devices to build statistical and machine learning models that can collect and classify human brain data. Prior to this experience, I had done a little bit of research in high school but it wasn’t similar. I think if you are looking to get involved with research, don’t be intimidated by cold emailing professors. I went onto U of T’s faculty page and looked for professors that were doing work that interested me and just emailed a few expressing interest to learn more. Especially if you can secure some funding or are looking to do so through programs like ESROP (Engineering Science Research Opportunities Program), it makes it easier for professors to hire you. Sending out those emails was really scary for me at the time, and I felt like I didn’t have any skills to offer. But I’m so glad I did it. I learnt so much from that experience, the professor and team I worked with taught me so much. So definitely if you are interested in research, it’ll likely take a few tries but just reach out to professors and you never know what might happen.

Back in high school, I was really interested in physics. I applied to programs in physics and earth science, and I got into some of them. However, looking up job prospects, I was not super set on them, so I decided to try out EngSci, which was more flexible, and I could decide later.

What did you learn in this role?

The transition from high school to university is truly different for every individual. I was fully remote my first year due to COVID, which definitely provided a different set of challenges.

What was your main role as the Aero Lead?

Unlike last year, where we had to design a new wind turbine, our design this year is based on last year’s design. We were more focused on improving the design and working with other subsystems to resolve the problems we had last year. There were some design components that did not work out, and we also addressed concerns about our own subsystem that were brought forth in the design competition last year.

How did you find the time for design teams?

I think I am luckier this year, because I am doing my PEY instead of being a full-time student. At first, it was manageable, but later my research duties became heavier, and it was difficult to focus on both, so I decided to take some time off the design team. I learned that sometimes I have to prioritize my own mental health and figure out what is more important to me, personally and career-wise, instead of trying different things and doing neither of those well. During the school year, I was more flexible with the time I put into the club, so I was more involved in the beginning of the term, and less so during exams.

Recommendations for incoming first years regarding extracurriculars?

In terms of time management, you should set priorities for different tasks. Not every task is equally important, and sometimes it is equally important to take a break; you don’t have to be working all the time. Sometimes it is beneficial to take time off, so you don’t make mistakes because you are tired. You can often find new perspectives on your work after taking a break and doing something else, which is also true for research. One thing to consider when joining is how much time you spend on these teams. Some require members to come and work during weekends, which is difficult for commuters.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to do physics before joining EngSci. After that, I was interested in similar fields such as aerospace or robotics. On the other hand, even in high school, I was very interested in programming, but I didn’t want to be a software developer, and I didn’t know about machine learning at all. In the summer after second year, I had a research internship focused on hardware, as I was interested in robotics. I got to work on implementing machine learning algorithms on ultra-low power FPGAs. I found that interesting, so I started looking more into that. This was a last-minute decision that took me some time to figure out. Another reason I chose MI was because work was very flexible. I could work anywhere if I had internet access. This fitted into my future plans more than working at a fixed location.

Having been in the same boat before, I think people should take more time to explore their interests. In university, you still have time to explore what you want to do, but it becomes harder to do that when you graduate. Your experiences are all connected. Being an aero lead doesn’t seem to tie into machine learning, but it gave me soft skills such as time management and reading research papers which carry over to other fields as well.

Instead of spending too much time on a single topic, EngSci MI gave me a good overview of what the field is like. Through these introductions, I became interested in certain things which are now my research topic. Another thing I really appreciated was that I got introduced to reading research papers in our courses. It is important because machine learning develops fast, and we must stay on top of things. To reduce time spent reading each research paper while still grasping the main idea is helpful for the work I am doing right now. This takes a lot of practice, so it is good to start early. Something else EngSci taught me is dealing with failures. Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to, and this also holds for research. There are a lot of ups and downs, and you don’t always get your paper accepted despite the amount of work you put in.

At first, I spent too much time trying to understand everything in the paper. Papers are usually long, so it takes some time to go through everything. However, this isn’t always worth it. Sometimes, only the higher-level idea is needed, so focus on the abstract and the conclusion. If you want to learn more, start with the figures, which will tell you more about the results. If you want to implement what the paper did, that’s when you read the methods section.

During high school I had more free time outside of class, so I could finish my schoolwork and focus on my interests. Now, I have to put in more time into my academics, and it is no longer easy to understand everything. Outside of lectures, I had to take extra time to review lecture content, which was defeating at first, but it is relatively common, and you should not feel bad about it. That is why it is important to manage your time. It is impossible to do everything on the same day, so it is okay to push some tasks to later.

Explore your interests through extracurriculars and taking electives that extend beyond the scope of your major.

My name is Cameron Robertson. I was born in Toronto – actually in Scarborough – but I grew up in the Philadelphia area in the USA before coming back to Toronto for school. I graduated EngSci in 0T8, and then I graduated with my master’s in 0T9 also from U of T, in the Institute of Aerospace Studies. Since graduating I’ve worked on a number of interesting human-powered projects.

Initially I worked on the human-powered ornithopter, which a team led by Todd Reichert and I had built while at the University of Toronto, and then finished and flew successfully shortly thereafter in 2009. It was the world’s first successful piloted flapping-wing aircraft. Then we founded Aerovelo and led a team to build the Atlas human-powered helicopter, which captured the 30-year-old Sikorsky prize for the first successful flight of a human-powered helicopter. That was in 2013. Then, in 2016 Aerovelo set the human-powered land speed record with the Eta speed bike. Ultimately, 89.59mph is the current speed that that vehicle holds. In between I was also working at a small company in Brampton called Brican, building one of Canada’s first domestic UAVs. It was all electric and designed for natural resources, environmental and wildlife applications, as well as some defense applications. So, there was a mix of human-powered and electric airplanes in the early days.

Since 2015, I’ve been at Kitty Hawk in Mountain View, California, working on vertical takeoff and landing (or eVTOL) vehicles, and in particular on the Flyer project. It’s an electric multicopter designed for one passenger, and it’s supposed to be the most accessible and easy to fly aircraft ever built. I’ve been working both in mechanical and hardware engineering and structures, as well as various managerial and director roles in engineering and flight-test. And now I’m working on a new R&D project at Kitty Hawk.

The transition was pretty challenging for me. I had been at a good high school in the US, and I had taken all of the Advanced Placement college/university level courses that I could. But, obviously, the level of academic rigor, responsibility and demand was very high in Engineering Science. Among my earliest impressions were that I felt everybody in the class was smarter than me. People were very dedicated and brilliant in general. I thought that I was going to have a very hard time; fortunately I did not pay too much attention to where in the class I actually lay in terms of marks as time went on. People were also very outgoing and interesting, and so it was great to meet a lot of people to make new friends. Those were some of the most important parts of the transition: realizing that everybody was so smart, but also that everyone was amazing and wonderful.

In high school I felt that study was a lot more independent, actually – whereas in Engineering Science, I think the friends you make and their level of intelligence as you kind of gang together meant that for us it was a lot more codependent. We did a lot more work together, and I think that helped us all make it through. It’s like the old adage: “You want to work with people who are smarter than you.” I think that really pulled up my own level of academic rigor and effort, and I think I got a lot more out of the program, because I was lucky to be surrounded by very smart, very kind people who again were very sharing and very patient. Not to say that I was a dummy or anything, but being around so many great people helped me strive harder.

Todd and I had a lot of social overlap, and it was during practice at the intramural engineering rugby team that Todd first mentioned the ornithopter. I basically overheard that he was wanting to build this human-powered ornithopter, and I said that I would be interested in hearing more and getting involved. It was very lucky and one of those happenstance occurrences where you’re in an environment and you’re near people and you kind of collide. Funny enough, that probably changed the trajectory of my life (to be fair, maybe also Todd’s). We talk a lot about how we developed our own codependence as we worked on a lot of these projects. As far as generalized “how I would recommend people split their time,” as I say, I was not the most academic student. I think that in general, Engineering Science was really focused on making sure the academics and the learning program and the coursework was really well-conceived, well-executed and as effective for book-learning and real academic knowledge as it could be. My approach – not just because I was lazy, but also because I wanted variety – was almost to do the minimum coursework I could to achieve an acceptable result. That was still doing well in the realm of passing and taking away everything I think was really intended from the academic work, but almost all of my other time was split between either intramural rugby, the other EAA sports, social events with the SkuleTM community. As far as hobbies I did sports like skiing and sailing with family. Furthermore, as Todd and I were talking about the snowbird project, that ended up absorbing a lot of my free time over the next 2-3 years of undergraduate and master’s. I think that the academic work was really important and set a good foundation, but arguably it was the work outside of the classroom that had the biggest impact on my ultimate trajectory. The short answer would be: I did enough academics to achieve what I internally deemed an acceptable result, and besides that I tried to fill life with everything else that I could.

I think one of my first, and maybe this is a common thread, was CIV102. That was a lot of people’s favourite, because it’s very hands-on, there’s a lot of historical context, which I loved, and there’s materials and structures, which is something that stayed with me for a long time. Most of my work in the subsequent decade was composite structures and analysis. And the experience in that course between the labs and the projects and some of the experimental work that was done was super interesting. So, that was definitely my favourite in first year, and maybe over years 1 and 2. In Year 2 Engineering Design was also very powerful, super hands-on, and had a lot of really great experimentation and collaborative working. A lot of people say that the Engineering Design class is hard and it definitely can be, but I actually wanted to spend as much time on that class as I could because it was all the things that I loved doing. I was in the electro-mechanical discipline. The only one that stands out as a really “not great” experience from first year was Linear Algebra, which is probably the case again for a lot of students. Gabe D’Eleuterio taught my last lecture, and I just squeaked by in that course. In my whole university career, that was the one that I came closest to failing. In the last lecture he said, “Well, the good news is, most of you will never have to touch this subject again.” And I breathed a sigh of relief and thought, “Oh, thank god.” And then he said, “However, those of you who go into Aerospace will see this all the time.” And at that point I was already pretty set on Aerospace so I was like, “Oh, dear.” That was interesting. It was not hard for the quality of the teachers, it was just not a subject I got really well. It was very high level math.

I don’t think it’s bad for university students to hear, but basically I think I’ve been very pragmatic as an engineer since graduation. I think that the foundation and the learning to learn in Engineering Science is really important. Kind of, “How do you come up to speed on a subject very quickly.” Since university, I probably haven’t used a lot of the particular details or elements of the coursework or very specific knowledge that we got in those four years. But, as I’ve had to learn new subjects, become an expert very quickly in a new discipline or work in a new space, learning to learn at a very high level is something that stuck with me. You have to learn very quickly to sink or swim, as in swim rather than sink in EngSci. That’s the most lasting capability that I took away.

In that particular experience it was very hands-on, and it’s like woodworking – putting parts of houses together, building things and working with a number of other disciplines like people doing drywall and people doing electrical. I thought that it was really good to learn how a whole project comes together from conception through execution, with many interrelated parts. But hands on work I think, similar to what we see in second year design and the fourth year aircraft design class, was something that I always sought more of and that really helped in the Snowbird days and with Atlas and Eta. Basically, for each of those three vehicles which did something the world thought was impossible, a lot of it was design, but a lot of it was about actually making a very high performance vehicle. They were very specific prototypes and very niche, but even so, they had to be of a high quality and well-executed. That capability to put things together with your hands is valuable – but as you do that more and more both in design and in stuff as simple as carpentry, it also helps your engineering tuition. So if I’m designing a structure or designing an airplane or integrating an electric motor or something, having a sense of what the right answer should be. It’s just like what Collins says in CIV102: “To find the answer you must know the answer.” It’s no less important as you go into very precise disciplines like computational fluid dynamics or finite element analysis, where you still need to have an intuition and ways of checking whether the answer that you’ve got out of a very intricate and precise analysis package is anywhere near right. So, again, I think that hands-on capability and that intuition are two skills that you get outside of the classroom but that are foundational to a successful engineering design capability.

There are a few things. Find the things that you’re really interested in. Search your soul and see what excites you, and if it’s academics and more research-ey things, that’s excellent. For me it was stuff outside the classroom. Then, pursue the opportunities that take you in that direction, so that your skills and your interests are what you really accentuate and grow. So:

1. Identify your strengths and interests
2. Own and work on those, increase your capability and expertise
3. Use those to differentiate yourself and to figure out how to provide value

It’s a great recipe for success and also for being happy throughout your academics and throughout your career. It’s the third step, the differentiator, that you execute on to a degree. There are an infinite number of legitimate outlets that can have an impact not only on your career and your resume, but even at a young age, on the world at large. I think that the things to actively do at a university are to go find those opportunities or make them yourself. Think about differentiation and adding value. I waited until the beginning of my third year to really do that. That’s where Todd and I started the ornithopter project. I focused a lot on academics the first two years. And I think that going forward in your career, it’s really those differentiators and the extracurriculars, and the value that you add, and the internships that you have, and the practical skills that you came away with, that differentiate you on your resume. I think that’s what sets you up for success, either working at very interesting companies once you graduate or starting your own company. If you want to do a startup, the people funding and supporting you want to know that you’ve done very interesting things.

I think partially with getting involved in the ornithopter project or the human powered vehicles team, it was that Todd and I ended up having good chemistry. I also had a group of friends who were interested; a lot of my roommates ended up joining the project. I had a little exposure to Formula SAE and Solar Car, and thought maybe these are not the teams for me. It also seemed well enough supported, in EngSoc for example, to start up your own team and to do your own thing. So, because we had put together a project and a goal that seemed really well-aligned with our interests, and the conditions for success and the right conditions for pursuing it were already there, it didn’t seem like a big impediment to go do our own thing at that point. It seemed like a really attractive opportunity that was totally feasible. And, that “can you do it” capability was fostered in EngSci to a degree. Fundamentally, there was an interesting idea, and there weren’t many obstacles to pursuing it.

I think I would have started on that “1, 2, 3 step process” earlier. We get a lot of time to decide our major, but I think that a lot of people come in thinking there’s a direction they want to go and some passions that align. Thinking about diversifying and getting experience outside the classroom from an even earlier stage would be really smart. Come in at year one and get involved elsewhere, start building community, and build outside experience. That’s the number one thing that I would say. Bring the experience that I went and pursued in year two further forward. There’s this idea of “I know you’re just starting. Year 1 and 2 are really intense. But shift the balance towards more focus outside the classroom even earlier.” I understand that had I been neck-deep in Solar Car in Year 3 instead of rugby, I might not have picked up that opportunity with Todd, but I think in general not everyone has a snowbird human-powered ornithopter that comes along.

My PhD is at the intersection of neuroscience and biomedical engineering. It has to do with trying to see if we can teach people to control their own brain activity, which kind of sounds like voodoo. But you can think of it almost like meditation or mindfulness, where you’re trying to self-regulate or be aware of what your brain activity is like. It’s more from the neuroscience perspective of “why that’s possible,” what brain networks facilitate that kind of control” and “what its potential applications could be in health care,” or even just to try and understand the brain at a more granular level.

To be honest, going into EngSci I was pretty scared. I think everyone does a pretty great job at scaring you coming in. It’s an incredibly hard program, and people were telling me, “Expect your grades to drop 20% compared to what they were in high school.” But I think my high school did a pretty decent job preparing me for that experience. Predominantly, I found that soft skills were important – like having a good work ethic and being able to put in the time and effort that it takes to succeed. That stuff was the most important and I was fortunate enough to have those skills going in. My grades didn’t drop as much as I expected, but that was largely because first year EngSci is a lot of math and a lot of calculus. Having a decent background in calculus from high school helped me quite a bit. Even though there’s just two calc courses, there’s a ton of courses like CIV102 and Physics that use calc and applications of calc. If you don’t know the basics or fundamentals, it’s difficult to succeed in those courses. I was fortunate to have that background going into it. Even having that background, like I mentioned, those soft skills – work ethic and time management – are important. Those were the key to success in the first two years of EngSci, at least for me.

I wanted to stay in residence, but my dad was in the US and my mom was home alone at the time, so I decided to commute from home. We used to live all the way out in Woodbridge, which is like an hour-and-a-half commute, which was rough in first year. It was about 2-3 hours of commuting a day. Second year onwards my dad moved back, so I was able to get an apartment with a friend, stay downtown and go from there. That was definitely a lot easier. As a result, in my first year I was unable to live in residence, which is something I wanted to do. I also wasn’t able to get involved in the community as much as I would’ve liked. That changed quite a bit after I moved downtown, because there was just more time. Also, you’re closer to campus so that you can stay later at night or come earlier in the morning. That opens things up quite a bit. Looking back, if I had the opportunity, I would’ve liked to have gotten that residence life experience, because I think I always envied that from my friends.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make it harder. That’s three hours of your day that’s gone, and not everyone’s great at studying during the commute. In Toronto especially, the commute is not trivial. Buses are packed and what not, and it’s always rush hour. First year EngSci isn’t just like 9-12 in the morning, you know: it’s 9-6, so you’re always commuting when it’s rush hour, early in the mornings and late in the evenings. I remember I tried to sleep during the commutes and then use those extra hours of sleep at night to study instead, so that was the way I coped with it. It is possible to manage. I have friends that commuted all four years, so it’s entirely possible, but it makes it harder to do well at academics and be involved at the same time. It’s worth noting that my case was an extreme case – most students don’t commute an hour-and-a-half – that’s pretty extreme. I think a 30-minute commute is totally reasonable and not out of the ordinary. When I lived downtown I spent 30 minutes watching TV or whatever, so that would be the same as a commute. It’s manageable if it’s a shorter amount of time.

I mean, I had so many fun experiences. One of my favourite experiences was starting a robotics team at U of T called Robotics for Space Exploration. A few friends and I started that team in my second year, and at that time there were just the five of us. We had no money, no funding, no support and no lab space, and we wanted to compete in this international competition called the University Rover Challenge. We had to design and build a Mars Rover and take it to Hanksville, Utah, for a three-day competition. Despite having no money, we put together this rover that weighed more than 50kg, and then realized that we had to somehow transport it to Utah. So a few days before the competition, we took it all apart and packed it in our suitcases. At the airport, we checked in these three suitcases filled with rockers, bogies, wheels, electronics, hand tools, power tools and everything else you can possibly imagine. After some missed flights and some lost luggage, when we finally got to Salt Lake City, we had to fit the five of us, all of our personal bags and our three check-in bags into this tiny rental car (because that’s all we could afford) and lug it to the middle of nowhere, which is where the competition was. That was probably the highlight of second year, and one of the highlights of my undergrad experience. RSX has come a long way since then, but those roots were a ton of fun. We had pretty much no money, maybe $1,000, and every other team had maybe $30,000 to work with. It was fun.

I was the president of the club the last year that I was involved which was also my first year of med school. I think our budget was like $35,000 or something like that, and we had about 50 members. So we’ve definitely come a long way since then, but the beginnings were very humble and very fun.

Were those mainly friends from EngSci?

Yeah! 4/5 of us that really started it were EngScis. One of us was an ECE.

What encouraged you to start that club? Was there a specific trigger or event that made you think, “Ok, let’s start this”?

I think it was just that I didn’t do anything in first year at all. Then, I had some friends that were interested in starting it and I thought, “Oh yeah, I’d love to get involved too!” It was mainly spur of the moment. I wasn’t a fan of space or anything at the time, but my friends were, and it was a pretty cool intersection. It just went on from there!

Lots of favourites. I really liked math going into EngSci, so I liked a whole bunch of courses. The best was probably AER201 [now ESC204]; it’s the second-year design course (Praxis III). That was a lot of fun, because it’s a very hands-on, practical course. [Side note: In this course, you will get to explore concepts related to mechatronics and Internet of Things (IoT) to build your designs!] My least favourite was probably Praxis I. I’ve never really liked languages, and I think Praxis was a lot of communication and writing. I was never a fan of that. It’s also an engineering design course, so I tried to focus more on the engineering aspects of the course and find some joy there and not to worry too much about the communication aspects. That went ok, but that was the hardest course to keep myself motivated for.

Once you specialized in third and fourth year, and even once you specialized further in graduate school, did you find that you were able to avoid subjects you didn’t like, or did they follow you through your education and career?

I think Praxis in general is difficult because in high school, communication and English is taught in this very literary and artistic way, where you’re expressing yourself almost creatively. This is opposed to engineering communication, where you are very efficient. You are taught to communicate as much as you can in as few words as possible. That transition is difficult, but now that I’m in academia and have to do it on a regular basis, those kinds of things are natural and second nature to me. Now if you were to tell me to take a high school course analyzing Shakespeare, that would be a nightmare. There are definitely fewer and fewer courses that you don’t like as you specialize more, just because you end up taking courses you’re interested in. That’s not to say that there weren’t courses in third year that I wasn’t a fan of. You still find a way of using the other courses as motivation to keep doing well. At some point or another, in some way or another, you’ll end up using interesting and not-interesting course material regardless.

I mean, the advantage of U of T is that it’s huge. Some people might consider that a disadvantage, but just the amount of things that you can possibly do at U of T and EngSci is unmatched by any other program, at least in Canada. The diversity of the faculty and students creates this unique blend of experiences that you can dabble in; you can go from a philosophy club while you’re in engineering right to hard core space robotics. On top of that, in EngSci in particular, you’re surrounded by these incredibly smart people. That obviously enriches your experience, even just being able to talk to these people on a day-to-day basis. Even more than that, everytime someone asks me about EngSci, I say, “Even if you forget every single thing you learn from EngSci, which some people might, the thing that stays with you is the work ethic that you build through that program.” It’s not an exaggeration when people say it’s incredibly difficult. It is incredibly difficult. But, having gone through that, there aren’t many things afterwards in life that you look at and say, “Oh my god, this is harder than EngSci was,” because there’s not a lot of things that are. Especially the first couple years of EngSci. So, you get used to having a good work ethic, being efficient with your time: these soft skills that you unknowingly develop going through that four year program, even if it feels like a slog at times. On top of that, the last thing I’d say is that the faculty at U of T is really great. People are world-renowned experts in their fields. You’ll be able to learn from the best of the best which allows you to figure out what you like, what you dislike and what area to specialize in. Regardless of what program you are enrolled in, or what courses you are taking, the number of extracurriculars that are available and the faculty that’s available to you is so massive that one way or the other you end up finding something that really clicks for you.

EngSci introduces you to a lot. That’s the whole point of the initial foundation years. You dabble your feet in a lot of different areas, so you’re able to have a base level of literacy in a lot of different areas that you can then apply your expertise in. That definitely helps. Being well-rounded is something that EngSci prepares you for. The other thing I think EngSci prepares you really well for is academia in general. If you’re interested in pursuing grad school of any sort, I think EngSci is a fantastic option. This is because the science is really emphasized throughout the program regardless of what your major is. If you want to become an area expert in any one particular field, EngSci is a tremendous option because it has a lot of research, academia and science integrated into any course you take. Even if you’re taking calculus, EngSci Calculus is different from other engineering calculi. It’s a lot more theoretical and down to the fundamentals, and it teaches you everything from the ground up, to question things and to ask “why” more than other programs might be. And that really helps in academia, because that’s what science is all about: asking those difficult questions. EngSci does an incredible job preparing you for that type of future. Even in terms of reputation, I think in all the programs that I’ve applied to, most people have been familiar with EngSci as a program that prepares students well for academia, not just in Canada but also in the US.

In general, going back to first-year EngSci, honestly, there’s not a lot I would change about my experience. I loved my undergrad experience. I would try to find more time in first year to get involved, but it was hard like I mentioned simply because of the commute and all that. I didn’t really have any time to get involved, but if I could go back and change that, I probably would. At the same time I would tell myself, and others, to not worry too much. Those kinds of extracurriculars come naturally. I remember in first year I signed up for 30 clubs at my first clubs fair, and I didn’t go for a single meeting, simply because I was so overwhelmed with the commuting and the coursework and things like that. At times I felt guilty about “oh, I wasn’t able to do this” and “oh, I wasn’t able to do that.” But it worked out just fine. Just try your best to get involved and it’s fine because things will happen organically. Just make sure to push yourself outside of your bubble and your comfort zone, and make sure there’s a life outside of the classroom. That will really, really enrich your experience. If I hadn’t done RSX, or any of the other clubs that I was involved with, I’m confident that I wouldn’t be where I am today or have half the experiences that I have today. There’s a whole world outside of the classroom to explore. And, with U of T and Toronto, you’re in such a fantastic environment that you would really miss out if you didn’t explore that. That’s what I would tell myself, and anyone else joining the program.

My name is Yvonne Ying. I am from Toronto; I grew up in North York, for the most part. I graduated from the class of 9T6. I did sort of a chemical and biomedical stream. After that, I went on to do my master’s in Chemical Engineering with a biomedical focus at Johns Hopkins University. Then I went on to do medical school at the University of Calgary and residency in plastic surgery. Now I work as a surgeon in Ottawa at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.

It was certainly challenging. You go into Engineering Science and you are surrounded by all these smart people. I remember in the first week of class, there were a couple of my classmates who already knew each other because they were on the national math olympic team together. They had gone to Moscow together for the math olympiad. It was definitely very intimidating starting off, but at the same time as you get to know these people, which makes it a great opportunity. There was great comradery and the fact that everyone was always willing to help and that these were great people to learn from was unique about the program. It ended up being a great opportunity, rather than something that was negative once you got to know them and get into the swing of the program.

I think it really was about the comradery with my classmates. I remember being in the common room for many many hours, doing problem sets and labs together. I think that’s what made it a great experience. It was a challenging experience, but it was also a great experience, really having the support of everyone and having everyone be really willing to help each other out.

I think certainly the program did. U of T has a reputation of being really big and impersonal. I think had I done, for example, a bachelor’s of science degree instead, you’re in these really big classes. In EngSci you’re with the same class of people all the time for the first couple of years, so you really get to know everyone. I think that U of T often has a reputation for being cutthroat and really competitive. I really didn’t find that in Engineering Science. Everyone wanted to do well but not at the expense of someone else. Everyone wants to help each other and try and make sure they can learn material and understand it as best they can, and whoever does better on the exam so be it. I think that was kind of unique and different, and the size of the program really made that possible. A lot of my Engineering Science friends from back in the day are still some of my best friends today. We have stayed in touch and we still get together.

I went into engineering with the plan to do biomedical engineering. I used to volunteer at BloorView Hospital, when that was still what it was called. It was a residential hospital for children with disabilities. I went into engineering thinking that I wanted to end up building assistive devices. I think I volunteered for some of the periods during my undergrad, but I did spend my summers working at Easter Seals and Ontario Marchodies summer camps for children and adults with disabilities. They were important for me to stay grounded and remember my goals and what I was working towards, as opposed to working classic engineering summer jobs.

I don’t remember having a favourite course. I think I just wanted to stay afloat in first year. I do remember not doing so well on my first physics exam, but very specifically I remember every question on my final CIV102 exam. That was clearly a very traumatic moment. My favorite course overall wasn’t till third year, when you’ve specialised a little bit more; I really enjoyed my mass transfer class. The course really confirmed that I had made the right decision to go into chemical as opposed to any of the other streams at the time. [Note: the chemical option no longer exists].

I think in general the adjustment was challenging. I would say everyone that gets into Engineering Science is used to being at the top of their class. Math and sciences in general probably come really easily to people who choose to go into EngSci. Then you come to EngSci and you’re surrounded by all these really smart people and it’s this feeling that you aren’t supposed to be there. They talk about Imposter Syndrome, and I definitely think I had a bit of that when I started. So it’s about learning that you belong to be there, and that it is about learning and understanding the material. Certainly it’s a challenging program; after Engineering Science I have done a number of degrees and by far I would say Engineering Science was the most challenging degree academically. It is a challenging program and you kind of have to work through it, but at the same time I found it a very supportive environment. To recognise that you might not be at the top of the class anymore but that really isn’t what’s important. It’s about learning the material and appreciating it for yourself.

One is about teamwork. Learning how to work with other people who look at the problem from different perspectives, which is often helpful in helping me to understand the problem better. I also learned how to understand things from first principles, which is really stressed in EngSci. You really have to understand how things are derived from first principles. At the time I probably didn’t appreciate this, but I definitely grew to appreciate it later on. When you understand the first principles, then you also understand why there are the exceptions.

I think certainly I would go back to saying that EngSci taught me teamwork and comradery skills. I think after being in the program a bit, the fact that it wasn’t about competing with others gave me the latitude to do different things in the summer. I didn’t feel that if I didn’t get that scholarship or research job or the job with the big industry company that I wouldn’t be able to succeed. There wasn’t that feeling and so that gave me the latitude to do these summer jobs that weren’t directly related to “engineering.” This all allowed me to maintain those other interests in my life. People recognize that Engineering Science is a difficult program, and so when you graduate from it there is the expectation that you can manage it academically. That in itself proves your abilities and these other interests complete that.

That it’s hard work, but to also try to enjoy yourself at the same time. You don’t have to do it alone, and you can find people to support you and work with you. I think that is what makes it fun work, is having that support and friendship to get through it together. It’s a stressful and tough four years but by working with others you can enjoy it at the same time. Try not to feel the pressure to be the best at it: make it about understanding and learning from it.