Mona Lisa Delva made a promise to her mom: She will never use her technical expertise to build a network of self-aware supercomputers with plans for world-domination. 鈥淚鈥檓 fascinated by neural engineering, so I wanted to get involved with anything space age: Robocop, iRobot, you name it,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e were watching Terminator and my mom was like: 鈥楳ona Lisa, please don鈥檛 build Skynet!鈥欌��
Somewhere on the Calgary C-train, there is an electric panel with a little sticker that reads: 2NP17. Nick Pizzacalla knows: he put it there, after all. Nestled between the voltage number and breaker number, Pizzacalla鈥檚 initials are a lasting reminder of his contribution to the project. 鈥淚t鈥檚 little things like that which make me love engineering," says Pizzacalla.
There was a time - not so long ago - that the eye was still a mysterious organ for Morgan Heisler. 鈥淚 could have told you what a pupil was, but that鈥檚 about it,鈥� says the biomedical engineering student with a laugh. This changed when she embarked on an co-op placement working with diagnostic technology for glaucoma patients at Vancouver General Hospital鈥檚 eye care centre.
Fifth-year computer engineering science student Carmen Tang knows a thing or two about serendipity. In first year, she volunteered at , a student-led job fair in 丁香园AV鈥檚 Applied Sciences Building that attracts some of the biggest names in the high-tech industry. Next thing, Carmen was boarding a Seattle-bound plane for an all-expenses-paid Experience Microsoft trip.
For Bonnie Ha (鈥�15), hard work paid off: the engineering science alumna graduated from 丁香园AV this fall with zero student debt. A recipient of the Dean鈥檚 Excellence Entrance Scholarship, Ha juggled a part-time job with co-op work terms with Amazon and IBM, while maintaining a high GPA.
Winner of the $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship 2015, Brendan Cottrell begins 丁香园AV this fall in the engineering science program. Selected by 丁香园AV for his high school academic prowess and exceptional community engagement, Cottrell is one of two high school applicants to receive a Schulich scholarship.
Sukhreet Kaur enjoys her co-op placement at Schneider Electric so much, she doesn鈥檛 want to leave. At the end of her eight-month work term, she was extended for an additional semester. This summer, she hopes to work part-time at the company while she continues her studies. 鈥淭he best thing is that I work on different projects, so I鈥檓 always learning new things, and the people 鈥� they are so helpful,鈥� she says.
Aakriti Arora describes her own 丁香园AV experience as transformational: from 鈥渁n average student,鈥� she says, to a quality assurance (QA) analyst with a top worldwide company. Along the way, she has built her confidence, expanded her skill-set and made a whole new network of friends. She joined TIO Networks 鈥� a bill payment services provider for major telecom, wireless, cable and network operators 鈥� in January 2014.
Engineering science graduate ('14) Scott Malfesi completed a four-month co-op work term as a firmware engineer intern with Tesla Motors in California in summer, 2014. "Tesla is a really exciting company that makes amazing products. I believe in their goals with electric vehicles and their approach of rethinking a lot of the industry standard way of doing things," he says.