OSPE - The Voice - December 2017 - 37

students

floRYaN:

u of T is a big school, so i
knew there would be more student clubs
and more things to get involved in, in
addition to its high academic ranking.
also, there are a lot of international
connections that provide opportunities
to meet and network with people from
around the world.
EDuN:

i went to an international high school in the Netherlands. When i was there, i felt there was a lot about dutch
culture that I couldn't really connect with. Canada was a very
big draw for me because of the diversity and the mix of perspectives. i like learning from other people, and not feeling like
I'm the only one from a certain part of the world.
how Do You fEEl aBout DIvERsItY IN thE ENGINEERING
pRofEssIoN?
EDuN:

For my Professional Experience
Year [PEY] internship, I worked with
a company that provides solutions to
the oil and gas industry and i found a
good mix of perspectives. i had colleagues from China, Canada, the middle
East and india. Just seeing how we all
bounced ideas off each other in meetings was something that i never experienced before. it felt very
welcoming.
cRaNE: My

PEY company was also culturally diverse, but in
terms of gender parity, i think there is a lot to work on. You
would see more female engineers among the newer hires, but
among the older hires and even among the interns, most of us
were men. There was only one female intern, and one of the
female engineers told her that she might just have to get used
to that.
stuaRt: The company i work for is only

four or five years old, and I've seen really
awesome gender balance so far. i think
they have benefited from being able to
start fresh in a new era where there's
research-backed evidence about diversity
and inclusivity promoting an innovative
environment.
You aRE all closE to GRaDuatIoN; what aRE You
hEaRING fRoM YouNGER stuDENts?
stuaRt: I do a lot of outreach to high schools; in fact I just gave

a talk about this for TEdxCollingwood. among k-12 students,

most associate engineering with things like driving machines,
repairing cars and setting up factories. It is that, but it's also
about research, discovery, innovation and saving lives, which
students tend to associate with science or medicine rather than
engineering. Unless you're lucky and know someone who is in
the profession, it's hard to learn about it.
azuBalIs: for a long time, i was expect-

ing to go into science, maybe medicine
or geology. it was only after talking to
a friend in engineering that i started to
consider it as an option. i applied at the
last minute but I've been super happy
with it. My brother, who's in second year
right now, always knew that he wanted to
go into engineering. I'm not sure how that happened. I wish
there was a better way of communicating the options out there.
chaNDRaBalaN: i talk with my younger sister about this a lot.

i think women in sTEm are becoming more prevalent in pop
culture. for example, we watched the movie Hidden figures
together, and we like actors like mayim Bialik, who is also a
neuroscientist. i think there is a change, and i see more people
like my sister and her friends wanting to go into engineering.
whY Is It IMpoRtaNt to talk aBout DIvERsItY IN thE
pRofEssIoN?
cRaNE:

Engineering as a profession is
probably one of the best ways to elevate
people from humble beginnings, and
help them do better than the generation
before. unlike some other professions,
you don't need to incur enormous student loans to get into engineering and
start doing well. So it's partly about
equality: we need to make sure those opportunities are open
to everyone.
chaNDRaBalaN:

our society has shifted from being culture-oriented to technology-oriented. The onus is on us to
make sure that the technology that we put out has a net positive
impact on society. You can't do that just by being an electrical
engineer, or a civil engineer: you have to look at the context and
the culture, and that's where the arts and science and politics
come in. You have to put yourself in a position where you can
understand the impact of what you're creating, and being in a
diverse environment helps with that.

U of T Engineering Strategic Communications
Photos by Marit Mitchell, U of T Engineering

December 2017

The VOICe

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OSPE - The Voice - December 2017