Here is a nice and interesting story about Waterloo Engineering from the American Society for Engineering Education. I like the picture from our student machine shop.
In the News
Engineering Most Popular Degree Among Millionaires
Here is an interesting article. If you follow the link at the bottom for the rest of the article, it goes on to say that most engineering millionaires made their fortunes as entrepreneurs.
Engineering Most Popular Degree Among Millionaires
Posted on November 18, 2013 by admin
by Marc Howefrom Sourceable 14th November 2013
A new survey has found that an engineering background produces more millionaires than any other form of tertiary instruction.
The survey, conducted by wealth management publication Spear’s and consulting firm WealthInsight, found that engineering was the most popular degree amongst the world’s millionaires, beating out even MBAs and computer science and finance degrees.
MBAs came in second after engineering, with economics, law and business administration degrees rounding out the top five. While engineering was at the top of the list, the only other STEM subject represented in the top 10 was computer science, logging in at number eight.
Other disciplines common among the world’s millionaires included commerce, accounting, politics and finance.
via Engineering Most Popular Degree Among Millionaires – Australia Wide Personnel.
Waterloo closes the gap between medicine and engineering | Waterloo Stories
Here is a link to the official announcement about our new Biomedical Engineering program, from earlier this week. Interest has been very good, with a lot of applications coming in already. I like Prof. Gorbet’s microscope, so I copied the photo here.
Waterloo closes the gap between medicine and engineering | Waterloo Stories.
Biomedical Engineering Starts Here
Exciting news for those who have been asking about Biomedical Engineering at Waterloo! All the necessary internal and external approvals have been received and we are launching an undergraduate (B.A.Sc.) program in September 2014. So the OUAC application centre should now be able to take applications to this program.
- A prosthetic eye, an example of a biomedical engineering application of mechanical engineering and biocompatible materials to ophthalmology. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’ll provide some brief details about the program below, and then some more detailed thoughts and comparisons in future posts.
- Like all of our engineering programs, this one will have program-specific courses right from the first day, and will be a mandatory co-op program (alternating 4 month periods of academic and industry work experience).
- This will be a modified Stream 8 program (i.e. the first co-op job starts at the end of 1st year, after 8 months of academic study). One unique feature is an 8 month workterm between 3rd and 4th year, followed by eight months of academic work. This gives more time to focus on one work term job, and more time to focus on a major design project in 4th year.
- The Biomedical Engineering program is a joint undertaking with input and teaching by several departments including Systems Design Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biology, and the School of Anatomy. It pulls together a lot of biomedical engineering expertise that already exists across those departments.
- The curriculum was designed with significant input from industry and graduate schools, so it should be very relevant for either path.
- Admission requirements: same course requirements as all of our other engineering programs. (in Ontario, ENG4U, SPH4U, SCH4U, MHF4U, MCV4U, + one other U/M course). High school biology is not required.
- Grade requirements? Hard to say, because that depends on the level of competition (i.e. number of applicants and their grades). There are only 45 spaces available in 2014, so we are guessing that mid to high 80’s might be necessary but it could go higher or lower. If you are interested, just apply and see what happens.
- Another unique feature: the program provides the opportunity to focus in a couple of interesting areas, namely Neuroscience and Sports Engineering.
- It is expected that there will be significant interactions with Waterloo’s Department of Kinesiology, as well as the Schools of Computer Science, Pharmacy, Optometry & Vision Science, and the Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience. A lot of biomedical research already takes place at Waterloo, as brought together in our Centre for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, so there should be opportunities for students to work on research projects (as there are with all of our programs).
There are other details I will cover later, but let me know in the comments if there are specific topics or questions I should try to address.
“Silicon Valley’s Canadian Feeder School”
That’s the title of a Bloomberg BusinessWeek article about the University of Waterloo’s engineering program that appeared this week in their Technology Section. You can read the article on this website.
It goes on a bit too much about Blackberry, in my opinion, but does have some interesting statistics. For example, there are over 1,000 local tech companies now, and 700 start-up companies. Coincidentally, Macleans magazine listed Waterloo as Canada’s most innovative university for the 22nd year in a row this week.
Students’ use of laptops in class found to lower grades – The Globe and Mail
Below is an article summarizing a study that measured the potential negative effects of bringing a laptop to lectures, i.e. you end up with lower grades. The study confirms what many professors informally observe, and what has been measured in other studies, such as a couple described in this document from Stanford’s website.
For note-taking in engineering classes, laptops are almost useless. Pen and paper may be old-fashioned, but it’s still the quickest and easiest medium for quick sketches, free body diagrams, derivations of equations full of Greek symbols, etc. We recommend (and some professors insist) that you leave the laptops at home or in your bag.
I see very few, if any, laptops in the lectures for the fourth-year (senior) courses I teach. Since fourth-year students are the ones who successfully got through the first three years, that’s probably a good hint for first year students. Continue reading
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to speak at University of Waterloo
Here is an interesting development, for those on-campus in September.
WATERLOO, Ont. (Wednesday, August 14, 2013) – Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and one of the youngest tech executives in Silicon Valley, will address students and local entrepreneurs at the University of Waterloo this fall.
Dorsey, who launched his second successful startup, Square, in Canada last year will tell a 675-strong audience about entrepreneurship and how Square created a culture that inspires anyone to be an entrepreneur and leader.
The 36-year old will also meet some students and entrepreneurs at a private lunch to discuss entrepreneurship and see firsthand the quality of Waterloo students.
“Jack Dorsey started a new communications movement when he launched Twitter and changed the world for millions of people. He’s continued to blaze the technology trail with Square, which is starting to transform how we make payments. ” said Pearl Sullivan, dean of engineering at Waterloo. “Waterloo is recognized as a leader in technology and innovation. We are very honoured that Jack Dorsey is making our University the first stop on his Canadian visit. We live and breathe entrepreneurialism here at Wat
via Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to speak at University of Waterloo | Waterloo News.
Interesting Engineering Student Stories
Haven’t had much time for writing posts lately, being busy with admissions, teaching an Air Pollution Control course, and dealing with several research projects. But here are a couple of interesting stories on what our students do outside of class, just to illustrate the diversity of opportunities.
Emily
Emily is a Civil Engineering student with a big interest in entrepreneurship. She has started a company and won several prestigious awards. Her company is not based on what you would call “classical” civil engineering, but nevertheless it involves project management, problem analysis, and creative solutions. You can read more about her and the business here and here and here. Emily has taken full advantage of the entrepreneurship and business training and experience opportunities at Waterloo, such as Enterprise Co-op, CBET, and VeloCity. Her story is also interesting, because she came to Waterloo as one of those very few successful transfer admissions from engineering at “another university”, where she found the student culture was not a good fit (story here). We are glad that she found a good fit and thrived at Waterloo.
Dominic
Dominic is a Mechanical Engineering student, and he has worked in the petrochemical industry during his 2012 workterms. Specifically, he worked with Shell Canada, where his problem analysis efforts (Root Cause Analysis) resulted in $1 million savings per year for the company, and a Co-op Student of the Year award for him (see the story here). It’s not clear from the story, but it is worthwhile to point out that he was only a second year student at the time. Something to point out to those who claim that our junior students don’t know enough to be useful to companies. We’ve always known that isn’t true, and Dominic is just one example. It also illustrates that if you want to work in the energy/petroleum industry, chemical engineering is not the only route. There are lots of roles for other engineers too.
So, a couple of stories that I hope you find interesting and informative. I always like learning about our students’ work experiences, and am frequently amazed by what they accomplish.
Learning to Code – II
Here’s an interesting article from TalentEgg on a Toronto-based non-profit group that runs workshops “for women (and men) who want to learn computer programming and other technical skills in a social and collaborative way”.
Women Cracking The Code: Programming As A New Literacy | TalentEgg Career Incubator.
The group is called Ladies Learning Code, and it looks like quite a fun and interesting way to teach/learn. I can see this expanding to the Waterloo area, if it hasn’t already.
Engineering Careers and Academic Reputation
A new survey and article in the Chronicle of Higher Education looks at the disconnect between students’ criteria for picking a college (university) and what employers care about. Basically it says that applicants who spend a lot of time and effort trying to pick a university with the best “reputation” are possibly wasting their time. Continue reading
A Professor in Waterloo Engineering 