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.
Choosing a Biomedical Engineering (BME) program is a bit more complicated than many other programs, like chemical or mechanical, because there is actually quite a variety among them. The following is my impression of the various types of BME programs.
First, what should a Biomedical Engineering (BME) program look like academically? Here is a reasonable definition given by ABET, the U.S. “Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology“:
The program must prepare graduates to have: an understanding of biology and physiology, and the capability to apply advanced mathematics (including differential equations and statistics), science, and engineering to solve the problems at the interface of engineering and biology; the curriculum must prepare graduates with the ability to make measurements on and interpret data from living systems, addressing the problems associated with the interaction between living and non-living materials and systems.
(The Canadian equivalent of ABET, CEAB, doesn’t publish any definitions but our expectations would be similar anyways.)
Within that framework, there are actually several different “flavours” of BME, and for potential applicants it is very important that you recognize and understand this. Otherwise, you might end up in a program that is completely different from what you might have had in mind. Here, I will attempt to summarize my understanding of the different “flavours”, with some example programs in Canadian universities. Continue reading
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.
I’ll provide some brief details about the program below, and then some more detailed thoughts and comparisons in future posts.
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.
During first year engineering, a number of students will come to realize that they are struggling in one or more courses. This will be shocking and confusing to them, because they have probably never experienced it before. They have probably never had to ask for help before either. It is never our intention to “weed out” a bunch of students (that would be a waste of our time and resources), so we try to provide a lot of avenues for student support, especially in that crucial first year. Students just need to take the initiative and seek out the help that is available (since we often can’t tell who is struggling until it’s too late). Here is a brief overview of various ways to access help. Continue reading
When faced with the task of submitting our Admission Information Form (AIF), there is sometimes some confusion over what to list in the “Extracurriculars” section. According to some dictionaries, “extracurricular” refers to activities at a school, but outside the regular classroom (or curriculum). While that is true, for university admissions the definition is usually much broader in practice. So, extracurriculars are not just school clubs and sports. We look for anything that takes place outside of a classroom, whether organized through the school or not. This would include activities with community groups, religious organizations, political and activist groups, recreational or competitive sports with community organizations (e.g. hockey and soccer leagues), cultural groups (theatre, choir, orchestra, art), cadets (army, navy and air) and scouts, and many other similar things.
It also includes things you might do on a more individual level, like music (perhaps Grade 8 or 10 RCM exams, or a band or performing group), art/photography, skiing, landscaping, automotive restoration, etc. It will also include hobby types of activities, like writing poetry or blogs, reading 19th century literature, music, model trains, writing software, raising show dogs or horses, gaming, stock market investing, …
So, for our purposes “extracurricular” means essentially anything outside the classroom. If it’s something you’re truly interested in and spend some time at, then certainly list it. This is your chance to show us more about who you are, aside from the grades we see on transcripts.
On the other hand, don’t make a long list of little things that you tried for a few hours now and then. It is not impressive. Stick with the significant things you’ve done over a long period, or that required a lot of hours over a short period.
Don’t worry if you only have a few extracurriculars. That is actually fairly normal and completely understandable. Also don’t worry if your extracurriculars are not “engineering” related. We don’t really expect them to be. Again, this is about you telling us about yourself. We don’t have any preconceived notions about what people should do in their spare time, so don’t try to second guess what it is we are looking for.
Here is a stereotypical, nerdy engineering reflection on calculators. Actually, the purpose is to illustrate how much technology changes in a single generation, and maybe somebody will find it interesting. So, here is a brief description of calculators that I have used in university and beyond.
Yes, I actually used this in high school and for the first couple of weeks of university in my chemical engineering program (for reasons you’ll see below). Once you were proficient, it could be faster than a calculator for some calculations. The downside is that you can’t add or subtract with it, only multiply, divide, do logarithms and trig functions. Addition and subtraction you have to do in your head, or on paper. It’s interesting to think that most engineering design done prior to the early 1970s was based on slide rule calculations. Continue reading
At our recent Fall Open House I met several prospective applicants who are enrolled in the CEGEP system. That’s a long trip for a few hours at an open house, but it was nice to meet them.
The Province of Québec has a somewhat unique junior college system that starts after Grade 11, called CEGEP. We don’t get a whole lot of applicants from CEGEPs, but we certainly admit a few each year and they tend to do quite well in our engineering programs.
The posted admission requirements for CEGEP are:
Linear Algebra; 2 English 603 or 604 series; Calculus I (Calculus II recommended); Chemistry I and II; and Mechanics plus either Electricity & Magnetism; or Waves, Optics & Modern Physics, with a total of 12 academic courses.
It’s sometimes difficult for CEGEP students to complete all those courses in their first year (especially Linear Algebra), so many applicants come from the second year of CEGEP. Since our programs are designed with to work with the Ontario high school curriculum, CEGEP applicants tend to be over-prepared (which is probably why they do so well), but that’s better than being under-prepared.
The good news is that our generic posted admission averages don’t really directly apply to CEGEP applicants. Our adjustment factors for CEGEP will allow for applicants with average grades (for the required courses) in the low 80’s to have a decent chance at admission to most programs (but as usual, the higher the grades the better). So CEGEP applicants should pay no attention to stuff they see online about needing 90s or 95s to get into Waterloo.
Here is a story about one of our Chemical Engineering students, and some of his work term experiences in the petrochemical industry. It’s typical of the variety of things that our students do during their 6 workterms over the course of our program.
by Shannon Tigert. A version of this piece originally appeared in the Spring 2013, ed. 2 issue of the Inside sCo-op newsletter.
Brodie Germain (4A Chemical Engineering) spent two rewarding co-op work terms at Suncor Energy. With his first two co-op jobs completed elsewhere, he was hired for his third work term as an Environmental Health and Safety Intern at Suncor’s wastewater treatment plant at the Mississauga Lubricant Facility. In this position, Brodie sampled the water the plant was using to ensure it was within government regulations.
Brodie’s position in his subsequent term at Suncor was Technical Services Intern, a support role for different engineers in the department. Each engineer is responsible for a different section of the plant, and by assisting all of them Brodie gained a variety of experiences.
A major project of Brodie’s during this term was a management of change analysis involving a heat exchanger problem; fluids passed through tubes to be heated and cooled. One of the fluids was picking up too much heat, reaching dangerously high temperatures. Various concerns and issues needed to be addressed, but Brodie appreciated the challenge. That’s because he connected what he was learning with things he had already done in school, like hydraulic calculations, collecting drawings and data sheets, and using logical thinking. Doing this kind of work was “as relevant as it gets” to his engineering degree, says Brodie: “I was able to find my strengths and weaknesses while developing my communication skills and technical foundations. A solid technical skills foundation is the most important practical thing to have as an engineer.” Continue reading
These seem like very reasonable suggestions and advice!
I gave campus tours for four years in college and witnessed too many mistakes being made by applicants and their families while visiting a campus. Seeing a school first hand is one of the most important steps in the college search, and its important you make the most of your time on campus. Check out these 5 insider tips on how to get the most out of your campus visits.
On my tours it was all too common to see a student completely lose interest within five minutes of being on campus. I choose to ignore the possibility that I was boring them, so it must have been that they didn’t want to be there in the first place!
Choosing which colleges to visit is not the time to throw darts at the dartboard. Take virtual tours, explore school websites, and look at photos…
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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.
A Professor in Waterloo Engineering 