Competitive wrestler and MIE student, Kirti Saxena (MechE 2T4 + PEY) adds a spot as an alternate for the Paris 2024 Olympic Team to her impressive competitive sports accomplishments. The road to the Olympic Trials took additional perseverance and determination as the Varsity Blues and Team Canada athlete recovered from her second knee surgery while managing an internship with Tesla at the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas.

Recent participation in the Canadian Senior National Championship was halted due to illness, but Saxena pushes forward with the Non-Olympic World Team Trials this month. Saxena shares with MIE what drives her successes in competition, her studies, and internship.

 

1) How did you balance training and working for Tesla?

My managers were aware of my training and competition schedules and that I would be able to balance athletics and work. I manage all priority work before leaving for competitions and I am part of a team that is supportive and encouraging toward my athletics. I start each day at 5:30-6:00 am, do an early morning gym session, head into the Gigafactory, and begin wrestling practice after work. A typical day ends at around 8:00 pm. Weekend workouts include something other than wrestling or strength and conditioning to add variety. Recently it’s been a mix of bouldering, soccer, and volleyball. Sundays tend to be my rest, reset, and meal prep days.

2) How was preparing for the Olympic Trials different from your other competitions?

Recovering from knee surgery, I was not at peak physical condition going into the Trials and I had to shift my mindset. I have always envisioned nothing less than winning and that remained but recognizing that I was still in recovery, I included tolerance towards my circumstances as I competed. The goal going into the Olympic Trials was to wrestle well and prove that I was on my way back from injury while transitioning into being a major competitor.

3) When did you have your knee surgery and what was the impact on your training and studies?

Surgery was right before final exams in the winter semester of 2023 and it has taken over a year to recover. My mindset toward my academics also shifted while navigating the physical and mental challenges that come with recovery. Not being able to do normal daily tasks affected my routines, study habits, and lifestyle greatly. I trained insanely hard for a month to be able to get back to a point to take my exams that semester. And even harder to get my body ready for physical impact.

 

4) Who has been your biggest inspiration?

I’m the youngest from a big family and have a number of role models. I would say that right now my biggest inspiration is my sister Rachna. Being a former wrestler and current coach, she represented women of color on the Wrestling Canada board while balancing a full-time job and starting a family.

When you ask me how I balance multiple priorities and work toward exceeding expectations, I am reminded of people, my sister being one of them, who consistently achieve even more. Rachna takes on challenges, listens to all points of view, and acts in a manner to benefit everyone. She is confident and greatly respected within her work environment and the wrestling community. She is also someone who has always supported and believed in me, even with our ten-year difference. I am inspired by my sister’s career path and aim to follow in the same direction.

5) What have you enjoyed the most about your Tesla internship?

Working at Tesla in the Gigafactory has been an unreal experience. The bounds of technology are endless. I appreciate the amount of responsibility allocated to interns as it provides the opportunity to take ownership of tasks and I have learned many skills in my areas of interest. My manager, and mentor, Drupadh gives me projects that he knows I will enjoy and learn from. He makes time for me regularly within his busy schedule, makes sure that my work is high-quality, and guides me through any problems. I appreciate his approach of letting me take the reins on projects so I can navigate issues and learn through my mistakes, while he is always available when needed.

-Published on May 7, 2024, by Kendra Hunter

On April 11, the U of T Engineering Career Centre hosted its sixth annual awards reception recognizing excellence in the Professional Experience Year Co-op Program (PEY Co-op) during the 2022–2023 work term. The event highlighted the outstanding contributions of employers, mentors, students, and staff who have supported the program’s enduring success. 

The PEY Co-op program has prepared U of T Engineering students to contribute meaningfully to top global organizations for more than 40 years. Conceived in the 1970s by Professors Derek McCammond, David Scott, and Ron Venter from the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, the program has since influenced more than 20,000 students across various engineering disciplines.  

Today, PEY Co-op is one of U of T Engineering’s most popular co-curricular offerings, with more than 94% of the first-year class joining over the past four years.  

Facilitated by U of T’s Engineering Career Centre, the PEY Co-op work term offers undergraduate engineering students the opportunity to gain full-time, paid work experience over 12 to 16 months. The program is a degree-long work-integrated learning journey that begins in the first year by preparing students for the recruitment process and work term, which begins after students’ third year of study. 

This year’s awards reception not only celebrated individual successes but also highlighted the lasting impact of the PEY Co-op program on the U of T Engineering community 

“We have many people to credit for the success of the PEY Co-op program. To the organizations that employ our students, thank you for having the foresight to see how engaging with our students benefits your companies and is crucial in developing the next generation of engineering leaders,” says Chris Yip, Dean of U of T Engineering. 

“And congratulations to the exceptional U of T Engineering students who have pursued PEY Co-op. Each of you have made the most of your experience by collaborating with diverse teams and being intentional in acquiring a global perspective. These are the qualities that will enable you to address some of the most complex challenges we face as a society.” 

The ceremony also recognized 11 peer coaches and 12 alumni ambassadors for their crucial contributions to mentoring current students and enhancing the PEY Co-op program. 

See more photos from the event in the awards reception photo gallery. 

Student of the Year 

The PEY Co-op Student of the Year Award recognizes a student who demonstrated excellence in the workplace as an outstanding member of the employer’s team. Employers nominate students for this award.

Barry Bytensky (Year 4 EngSci) 

During his PEY Co-op at The Hospital for Sick Children’s PCIGITI Lab, Bytensky developed a novel simulation platform to explore prospective high-intensity focused ultrasound treatments of retinoblastoma. His promising findings led to several presentations at SickKids research conferences.

Karma Sadhwani (Year 4 ChemE) 

Sadhwani completed her PEY Co-op work term at Scotiabank, where she served as a trade floor technology consultant with the Global Banking & Markets Technology team. In this role, she was involved in managing various high-risk trading applications utilized within the department and actively pursued automation opportunities across different teams on the trade floor. This summer she will return to Scotiabank as a sales & trading rotational analyst. 

 

Employer of the Year 

The PEY Co-op Employer of the Year Award recognizes an exceptional partner organization that hired a PEY Co-op student. Because of the employer, the student or students came away from their PEY Co-op experience with enhanced knowledge, honed interests and a head start on developing as a professional. 

MDA Space

MDA Space received the PEY Co-op Employer of the Year Award for its outstanding dedication to providing enriching professional development opportunities and creating a supportive environment for co-op students during the 2022–2023 work term. They have been a valued PEY Co-op employer since 2013, and have hired and mentored 37 U of T Engineering students to date. 

 

Mentor of the Year  

The PEY Co-op Mentor of the Year Award recognizes an exemplary individual and their commitment to excellence in mentoring. Recipients of this award have played an exceptional role in sharing their wisdom and experiences, nurturing the personal and professional growth of their mentees. Students nominate their managers or supervisors for this award. 

Alice Gao (ECE 1T0, ECE MASc 1T2)

Gao serves as lead engineer at Deep Genomics, a U of T Engineering spinoff founded by Professor Brendan Frey (ECE). During her time at Deep Genomics, Gao has engaged in diverse areas, from building software for machine learning (ML) research to developing models for genome biology and drug discovery. Her passion lies in creating tooling to support reproducible ML research and accelerate the development of genome biology ML models, particularly in an era where training such models demands substantial data and computational resources. 

Adriano Lombardi (IndE 0T0, MIE MEng 1T2)

Lombardi has been a passionate mentor within the PEY Co-op program since 2000. He is an accomplished professional with 23 years of extensive process improvement experience and 16 years of cross-functional leadership across diverse sectors, including financial services, retail and manufacturing. In his most recent role as director of business process re-engineering at Walmart Canada, Adriano collaborated closely with business teams to drive medium to large-scale operational and digitization projects. 

 

– This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on April 30, 2024, by Yumeng Zhang.

The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering recently honored 25 faculty and staff members for their outstanding contributions with teaching, research, and administrative staff awards. These awards recognize exceptional faculty and staff for their leadership, citizenship, innovation, and contributions to U of T Engineering’s teaching, service, and research missions.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity to acknowledge our professors and staff who contribute to making U of T Engineering Canada’s top-ranked school for engineering education and research,” says Christopher Yip, Dean of U of T Engineering.

“My congratulations to all the awardees, and my heartfelt thanks to all our faculty and staff members for their continued excellence.”

Among the recipients, Professor Chi-Guhn Lee and Katie Allison (MASc student) from MIE are awarded the Safwat Zaky Research Leader Award and the Teaching Assistant Award.

Chi-Guhn Lee (MIE) 

Safwat Zaky Research Leader Award  

Recognizing leadership in innovative interdisciplinary and multiple-investigator initiatives that have enhanced the faculty’s research profile. 

Over the past decade, Chi-Guhn Lee has led large-scale research initiatives that have benefited many students and faculty members and significantly raised the profile of U of T Engineering.

He has taken over the leadership of the Centre for Maintenance Optimization and Reliability Engineering (C-MORE), which was founded 30 years ago by Professor Emeritus Andrew Jardine (MIE) but began to stagnate when he retired. Under Lee’s leadership, C-MORE has steadily grown, supporting more diverse research activities and educational opportunities.

Lee was also instrumental in developing U of T’s research partnership with LG, beginning in 2018 when he invited the President of LG CNS to visit the faculty. An official agreement between LG and U of T was signed in 2019, bringing in $3 million. Lee then worked closely with LG CNS to initiate a second funding program, effectively doubling LG’s investment.

In 2023, LG Electronics announced the renewal of their partnership with U of T for another five years.

Lee played an important role in creating an International Doctoral Cluster for the exchange of graduate students with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Under his guidance, the program has facilitated substantial research collaborations and cultivated a vibrant academic community.

Katie Allison (MIE MASc student)

Teaching Assistant Award  

Recognizing a TA who demonstrates excellence in classroom teaching, working with students, and the development of course materials. 

Katie Allison, a mechanical engineering MASc student, has served as a teaching assistant in two foundation year courses in the Division of Engineering Science, ESC101: Praxis I and ESC103: Engineering Mathematics and Computation. This means that students encounter her during their often challenging transition to university.

Allison’s style of teaching and her approach to engaging with students helps them to build confidence in their skills and knowledge as they progress through their first term. Her commitment to students does not end when the course does; she continues to mentor and advise many students in her classes throughout their time at U of T.

Allison also played a key role in the development of ESC204: Praxis III, starting with her involvement on the course development team as a fourth-year EngSci student. Since then, she has taken on various roles in the course, including TA, senior TA, and course instructor. Allison developed a more than 200-page prototyping handbook that serves as a reference for students to extend their learning, as well as hands-on Prototyping Bootcamp materials that she has created and refined through several iterations of the course. As ESC204 has developed, she has been instrumental in collecting feedback and responding to student concerns to improve their experience.

Congratulations to Professor Lee and Allison for their achievements and contributions to the research and teaching of the U of T Engineering!

 

– This story was a part of the article originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on April 16, 2024, by Carolyn Farrell.

Eighteen outstanding students from across the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have been presented with the University of Toronto Student Leadership Awards (UTSLA). These students were recognized for their leadership, service, and commitment to the university at a celebration on April 5, hosted by the U of T Engineering Office of Advancement. 

Their diverse activities include taking on leadership roles with the Orientation Committee, mentoring first-year students, working with student clubs such as Engineers Without Borders and the U of T Aerospace Team, and leading SkuleTM mental wellness initiatives. They sat on numerous steering committees, participated in working groups, founded clubs, and organized conferences, and many excelled in varsity and intramural sports.  

The UTSLA continues a long-standing tradition, which began with the Gordon Cressy Student Leadership Award, established in 1994 by the University of Toronto Alumni Association in honor of Gordon Cressy, former vice-president, of development and university relations. During the award’s 25-year history, it celebrated the exemplary contributions of more than 4,000 students whose commitment and service had a lasting impact on their peers and the university. 

Also at the event this year, members of the Engineering Society (EngSoc) and the Graduate Engineering Council of Students (GECoS) celebrated their outgoing student leaders and recognized the contributions made to student life with the EngSoc Awards.  

 

 

“Our student leaders inspire their peers, as well as future students, through their contributions to the educational experience that makes this faculty such a wonderful place,” says Chris Yip, Dean of U of T Engineering. 

“It really has been an amazing privilege to work with this cohort and I’m looking forward to seeing what each of them will accomplish as engineering leaders. Congratulations to all our U of T Engineering student leaders.” 

 

The UTSLA recipients for 2024 are:  

• Julianne Attai (Year 4 EngSci)  
• Emma Catherine Belhadfa (Year 4 EngSci) 
• Samantha Butt (Year 4 MechE) 
• Yuxuan (Amy) Huang (Year 4 EngSci)  
• Parker William Johnston (Year 4 ElecE)  
• Hannah Kot (Year 4 ChemE) 
• Seyedreza Fattahi Massoum (UTIAS PhD candidate)  
• Erin Ng (Year 4 ChemE) 
• Kimberley Orna (Year 4 ElecE)  
• Joanna Roy (Year 4 EngSci)  
• Joseph Anthony Sebastian (BME PhD candidate)  
• Peter Serles (MASc MIE 1T9, MIE PhD candidate) 
• Charu Tyagi (Year 4 CivMin) 
• Deniz Uzun (Year 4 ElecE)  
• Yang (Sarina) Xi (Year 4 EngSci) 
• Bo Zhao (Year 4 CivMin) 
• Katherine Zhu (Year 4 EngSci)  
• Nelson Lee (Year 4 CompE): 3T5 Second Mile Award winner

Outgoing EngSoc Leadership 

• Parker Johnston, President (Year 4 ElecE)  
• Bo Zhao, Vice-President of Finance (Year 4 CivMin) 
• Renee Slen, Vice-President of Communications (Year 3 MSE)  
• Kenneth Lloyd Hilton, Vice-President of Academics (Year 3 CompE) 
• Joy Lai, Vice-President of Student Life (Year 4 EngSci)  

Outgoing GECoS Leadership 

• Brohath Amrithaj, President (ChemE 2T2, ChemE PhD student)  
• Tess Seip, Vice President of Communications (MIE PhD student)  
• Norna Abbo, Vice President of Student Life (BME MASc student)  

EngSoc Award Winners  

• Affiliated Club of the Year: Engineers Without Borders 
• Director of the Year: Hard Hat Café – Edlyn Li (Year 3 MechE) and Kelvin Lo (Year 3 IndE), Stores – Ashlyn Abdelmasseh (Year 3 MechE) and Aidan Maunder (Year 4 MechE), and Skule Photography – Ethan Chen (Year 3 MSE) 
• Discipline Club of the Year: MSE Club 
• Engineering Society Centennial Award: Jim Xu (Year 1 TrackOne) and Lauren Altomare (Year 2 EngSci)  
• Engineering Society Semi-Centennial Award: Rafiq Omair (Year 3 MechE) and Prarthona Paul (Year 4 CompE) 
• Engineering Society Award: Parker Johnston (Year 4 ElecE)  
• Joe Club Award: Amanda Morelli (Year 4 MSE)  
• Representative of the Year: Sherry Zhang (Year 4 EngSci)  
• Skule Cannon Award: Erika Narimatsu (Year 4 MechE)  
• L.E. Jones Award: Julia DeMarchi (Year 4 CivE)  

See more photos from the event in our Flickr gallery. 

After completing a four-month internship at Tesla, Victoria Vastis (MechE 2T3) found herself with some unexpected free time.

“I was meant to start another work placement, but it just didn’t feel like a good fit, I wasn’t getting the growth opportunities I was looking for,” says Vastis. “I ended up quitting after a couple of weeks and started thinking about how I wanted to spend the next four months.”

Vastis considered the areas she wanted to gain more experience in, like industrial and electronics design, and came up with a project that would combine her engineering skillset with her long held passion for music: building a guitar.

“I’ve been a musician since before I was an engineer, so it felt really natural to bring these two areas of my life together. I was starting to explore more punk and metal sounds in my music and I decided I wanted a guitar to fit the new genre I was creating in – that’s when the idea of the cyber shredder was born.”

As Vastis began envisioning the cyber shredder she knew she would have to get creative with the materials since she didn’t have experience with woodworking. Drawing on her experience at Tesla, Vastis decided on sheet metal to build the body of the guitar. Her internship experience also helped influence the design of the unique guitar – the cyber shredder took inspiration from Tesla’s distinct Cybertruck.

The design process started with Vastis putting what was in her head onto paper – lots of rough sketches and gathering her inspiration in one place. Next, she created CAD models of her design before creating a 3D-printed prototype.

“Everything looks perfect in a CAD file,” says Vasits, “but I knew I wanted to prepare a prototype before investing in all the metal pieces. By assembling the prototype I was able to see which parts were having trouble fitting together and also get the opportunity to interact with my design and make adjustments so the guitar would be comfortable to use.”

Once Vastis received the metal parts, she spent every spare moment outside of her internship at Lucid Motors working on assembling the guitar and developing a sound-reactive LED system. The final product is an impressive silver, angular guitar that draws a lot of attention.

“I really got to push myself when I was programming the LED strips. I created five different sound-reactive light modes and I’m really happy with how it all turned out. I was even able to get the guitar chrome plated!”

The cyber shredder has made the rounds on campus, being played by friends, former bandmates, and even turning up in Dean Christopher Yip’s office.

“This is my favourite part of product design and being an engineer; something I created is bringing a smile to someone’s face. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical aspects of engineering, but I like to focus on the human side,” says Vastis.

For other U of T Engineering students Vastis has a key piece of advice:

“Explore ways to learn outside of the classroom – join a design team, combine the engineering skills you want to develop with other passions, use the theory you’re learning to solve your own problems – the more you can tailor your learning to your interests the more opportunities you’ll find to grow. And don’t be afraid to ask for help! Upper year students and your professors are here for you, we have the same interests and will be excited to help you figure out a challenge.”

-Published November 22, 2022 by Lynsey Mellon

Melissa Ma (MechE 2T4) makes a point of seeking out as many hands-on learning experiences as possible as she completes her Mechanical Engineering degree at the University of Toronto. Now in her third year, Melissa has discovered she is primarily interested in mechatronics and sustainable energy, is the Leader of the Braking System Team for the U of T Hyperloop Team and recently presented at her first academic conference.

“The best part of being an engineering student are all the opportunities to get involved with learning outside of the lecture hall,” says Ma. “I love being a part of a design team and my desire to expand my knowledge outside of the classroom is what led me to seek out a research position as an undergraduate student.”

After completing her first year, Melissa was able to find a summer research position in the Decisionics Lab led by Professor Fae Azhari (MIE). As a Summer Research Intern, she supported the work of PhD students who are investigating the use of sensors in prosthetic joints to help inform healthcare decisions.

“I’m very interested in smart materials and the Decisionics Lab is doing fascinating work in the area of composite sensors,” says Ma. “I worked closely with Professor Azhari and Amin Jamshidi (MIE PhD Candidate) on this research project and even presented our preliminary findings at the UnERD (Undergraduate Engineering Research Day) in 2021. It was a great experience and I won the Top Researcher Award, and Best Podium Presentation in the Materials category, and Best Podium overall.”

Melissa continued working with the Decisionics Lab into her second year and saw the project evolve into a research paper that was accepted for publication in Materials Letters and for presentation at the recent SMASIS (Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures, and Intelligent Systems) conference.

“The lab team asked me if I would be interested in attending the conference to present our research and even though I felt a little unsure I was experienced enough to take this on, I knew I had to take advantage of the opportunity,” says Ma.

The conference took place over three days and featured talks from top researchers, networking events and the opportunity to explore the latest innovations in the field of smart materials. Melissa was also involved as volunteer and helped to organize student events at the conference.

“My first conference experience was great! It was really inspiring to see experts from the field come together in one place and share their research,” says Ma. “I was a little nervous when it was my turn to present but I was able to share our research and represent our lab well. It was really cool to present to an audience of people who were interested in the same research areas as me and I loved hearing all the discussions and being able to network with researchers from around North America.”

“I really encourage other undergraduate students who are participating in research to look for these opportunities. If you get a chance to attend a conference or be involved with a publication, go for it! You will gain so much from the experience. I’ve developed my presentation skills, networked with professionals from industry and connected with a community of researchers in my field.”

-Published October 17, 2022 by Lynsey Mellon

Michael Mohan (MIE) is a PhD candidate supervised by Professor Edmond Young (MIE) in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He joined the Department in September 2017 to begin a Master’s degree and quickly became inspired to continue his graduate studies in order to pursue cancer research.

Michael’s current research focuses on recapitulating key features of the pancreatic cancer tumor microenvironment using microfluidic technology. He hopes that this technology can be used to better understand characteristics that influence treatment resistance in pancreatic tumors.

Outside of his PhD studies, Michael is a steelpan musician performing with many bands in and around Toronto and recently performed at the Pan Alive and Grande Parade events as a part of the Toronto Caribana festival.

“After completing my undergraduate degree at University of Guelph, I was excited to return to Trinidad and finally obtain a steelpan of my own,” says Michael. “The steelpan is Trinidad’s national instrument and it served as a connection to my culture when I returned to Toronto to begin my graduate studies.”

When Michael first arrived in Toronto, he struggled to find community and feel like he belonged. It felt challenging at times to make connections and fit into a new culture. It was only when he connected with a Toronto-based steelpan tuner in October 2019, Michael discovered the vast network of Caribbean people and musicians here in Toronto.

“I did some research to find a professional tuner in Toronto and when I took my instrument in, I asked if he knew of steelpan groups that needed more players, that’s how I connected with a group that played on Tuesday evenings,” says Michael. “Suddenly I had a whole community of people from my culture that shared my passion for the steelpan.”

Through this group of steelpan musicians Michael became a member of the Afropan Steelband and had the opportunity to perform at the Caribana Festival in July 2022.

“It was such an amazing experience to perform at Caribana,” says Michael. “We rehearsed every evening throughout the summer and it was truly an honour to be able to share our culture and music with Torontonians. I felt like I had been transported back to Trinidad! It was a fantastic celebration of Caribbean culture.”

As we welcome new and returning students to campus this fall Michael hopes others can learn from his experience.

“It can be overwhelming starting a new program in a new city and it’s really easy to feel isolated. The best advice I can give to others who might be feeling this way is to be courageous – reach out to others and seek connections,” says Michael. “You can start with your lab mates or classmates, they will have similar experiences as you and may even be feeling the same way. There are so many ways to build community, start with following your interests and see what you find.”

-Published August 22, 2022 by Lynsey Mellon, lynsey@mie.utoronto.ca

Newsha Haghgoo (CivE 2T0, MEng Candidate) recently attended the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the world’s largest gathering for the space community, where she met her favourite astronaut, Christina Koch.

Newsha joined MIE in January 2021 to begin the MEng program where she is taking courses like systems engineering to further explore her areas of interest; making spaceflight safe for women and the use of Cube Satellites to study the relationship between climate change and the earth’s oceanic activities.

“I’ve always been interested in space, and I started exploring ways to get involved in that community outside of my studies. By talking to others who shared the same interests I was introduced to the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC),” said Newsha.

The SGAC is a non-profit organization that works to pair students with an interest in space with research opportunities. Newsha began attending SGAC networking events where she was able to meet others to form project teams. One of her current projects with SGAC is titled Safe Spaceflight for Women-Examining the Data Gap and Improving Design Considerations.

“We are at the beginning of making spaceflight more inclusive, but with only 11% of astronauts being women there is a huge data gap on the impact of spaceflight on women,” said Newsha. “I recently presented my project team’s research on safety for women in space at the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) conference and won the Special Recognition Award. The selection committee felt that this was a particularly important and timely research topic.”

Newsha’s next conference presentation will be in Paris at the 12^th European CubeSat Symposium which is being held at École Polytechnique University. Newsha and her team have been working on designing a multispectral and multi-temporal Cube Satellites system that will analyze the relationship between climate change and oceanic activities. The satellites feature sensors that can take measurements like surface water temperature, salinity and sea level to gather data that may help with disaster forecasting.

“Space tech is not only used for outer space exploration purposes; it has an important role in understanding our planet Earth as well,” said Newsha. “These Cube Satellites could help us better understand what is going on in our oceans and how that activity impacts climate change. Hopefully, this information will help us predict disasters like flooding and prevent a lot of destruction and loss of life.”

The opportunity to travel and present the projects she has been working on this fall has been very memorable for Newsha. Having the chance to connect with others in the space community and meet her favourite astronauts is a direct result of the effort she put into expanding her community at U of T and beyond.

“I really encourage students to go to as many events that are related to your interests as possible. Put yourself out there and network, that’s how you’ll build a supportive community. You never know what type of opportunities will come from exploring your interests.”

-Published November 8, 2021 by Lynsey Mellon, lynsey@mie.utoronto.ca

The University of Toronto Hyperloop Team (UTHT) is one of the most diverse student clubs on campus and includes students from across engineering as well as those who are studying business or architecture. The UTHT Executive Committee includes MIE students Phil Cuvin (MechE, Structures Co-Lead,), Mohammad Diab (MechE, Fusion 360 Integrations Lead), Cecilia Rozario (IndE, Business Development Director) and Melissa Ma (MechE, Braking Lead) who took some time to share what makes UTHT so unique and what the club is hoping to achieve over the course of the next year.

What drew you to UTHT and made you want to join?

Mohammad: Initially it was a combination of the hype of first year engineering and looking at design teams and the work they do at the career fair. Ultimately though, it was a friend of mine at UTHT who motivated me to join, he would always talk about the cool stuff they were working on and that inspired me to get involved.

Melissa: I saw the recruitment posting for UTHT the summer before first year. As someone who likes doing hands-on things, I knew that I wanted to join a design team to provide me with the opportunities to learn practical skills and work on cool projects outside of class.

What initially drew me to Hyperloop was the idea of engineering an innovative and sustainable train-like pod that could propel passengers from Toronto to Montreal through vacuum tubes in under an hour! This cutting-edge concept really spiked my interest and I applied to the team right away.

Phil: For me, it was that UTHT is doing something very different than traditional design teams that are focused on a single vehicle or particular product. UTHT isn’t just a design team – we’re designing both the pod and the system for it to work on as well as developing a business plan and working towards making hyperloop technology a reality.

What is UTHT looking forward to achieving this year now that we’re back on campus?

Phil: The team has a number of goals for the year. First, we want to finish up Pod 1, this is the first pod created at U of T. Next, we’ll start working on the design and manufacturing of Pod 2, which will be powered by magnetic levitation. Ours will be the first design team at U of T to explore this cutting-edge technology.

We’re also planning on working with other design teams and professional groups to recruit to members and get the wider community excited about hyperloop technology. Keep a look out for workshop and other events hosted by UTHT!

UTHT features students from many different disciplines. What kind of roles are available on the team and how is the team structured?

Phil: One of the highlights of UTHT is working with students from other disciplines. Our team draws on every skillset in engineering and beyond to achieve our goals. With such a diverse group we have worked hard to develop a positive team culture and make use of everyone’s skills. We also have a number of sub-teams within UTHT that allow for students to focus on their strengths and interests while moving towards our shared goals.

Melissa: UTHT really does have a role for everyone! When I joined, I was nervous about my lack of engineering knowledge and experience as a first-year student. However, the braking sub-team had great upper-year leaders that taught me skills such as Computer-Aided Design, component selection, and manufacturing— all of which I never would have imagined learning so early on. UTHT is a great place to grow along with students from all disciplines and backgrounds.

Do you have any tips for students who are concerned about balancing clubs activities with their studies?

Mohammad: The most important thing to keep in mind when considering joining design teams is that everyone in that team is a student just like you, they have their own lectures to attend, assignments to do, and midterms to study for. We won’t put too much on your plate! If you can’t make it to a meeting, for example, just let it us know. We understand because we’re all in the same boat.

As for tips to help balance clubs and studies, I would say join clubs with your friends instead of joining alone, and if you can’t get a friend to join a team you like that’s okay! Because you can always make more friends in those design teams. Get out of your comfort zone and we’ll be there to support you!

Phil: I think it’s helpful to think about how your involvement in clubs directly benefits your learning as an engineer in class. Don’t think of time spent on clubs as taking away from your studies, instead realize that you are gaining hands-on experience solving real engineering challenges. You get to put what you learned in class to use in clubs and in my experience, it helps to reinforce the engineering concepts you’re studying.

UTHT is also a very supportive and flexible team. We can adjust your role or involvement to meet your individual skill level and goals, we want to encourage lower-year students to get involved and bring their fresh perspective, so you don’t have to wait until you think you have enough experience to join, there is a way for everyone to get involved.

Learn more about UTHT and keep up with their activities by following the group on Facebook and Instagram.

-Published October 12, 2021 by Lynsey Mellon, lynsey@mie.utoronto.ca