March 18, 2019 – Undergraduate engineering students in the last year of their program reached a major milestone this month – they participated in the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer and received their Iron Rings. Now wearing the rings – hammered out of either stainless steel or the traditional iron – on their working hand, the students have joined a global community that has vowed to live by a high standard of professional conduct.
“I have seen, and take pride in, these students’ hard work and dedication these past few years,” said Professor Markus Bussmann, Chair of MIE. “They have earned the right to wear the Iron Ring and will join an exceptional community of engineers here at U of T and beyond.”
We invited students to share their thoughts on what their newly acquired Iron Ring means to them:
“I was on a very different course before I began engineering and my iron ring is symbolic of how far I’ve come since then. It’s a reminder of everything from the hysterical nights spent in the labs with my friends to the dinner dances where we’ve cleaned up so well, no one would have guessed we were engineering students. Above all, my iron ring is a reminder to be thankful for everyone who has helped me get to this point and to be thankful to myself for not giving up on me. Congratulations, class — we made it!”
–Jade Khiev (Year 4 IndE)
“This is something that I never thought was possible, or was so far off that I couldn’t even imagine it happening. I have changed so much over these past five years, both personally and academically. The Katherine who was first introduced to iron rings five years ago is not the Katherine now – and I mean that in the best way possible.”
–Katherine Pryszlak (Year 4 MechE)
“The Iron Ring represents not only the years of hard work, struggle, joy and tears in receiving this ring, but moreover, the moral obligation of engineers to perform our duties diligently, ethically and with pride for the betterment of society. It feels fantastic following in the footsteps of thousands of Canadian engineers who wear this ring today, as well as thousands more in the future that I hope will strive to become engineers as well!”
–Saurabh Agrawal (Year 4 IndE)
Graduating mechanical engineering students with their Iron Rings
Graduating industrial engineering students with their Iron Rings
by Pam Walls, pam@mie.utoronto.ca
