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.