Author Archives: jason hu

Portraits of famous scientists and engineers greet you from the west wall of ETH. The stone causeways and massive wood doors instil a sense of magnitude and significance to the university. Their mechanical engineering courses follow suit. Never have I studied so hard for such mediocre grades.

Part of the challenge came from class format. There is a distinct lack of hand-holding in these courses, which is a good thing. Engineering students at ETH learn very early on to take full control of their own schooling, as all course material is available early on in the semester and most tutorials or quizzes are non-mandatory.  Four of my five course grades were entirely dependent on final exam performance. (this seems less common in other engineering departments).

Think that’s nuts? Many of the exams were formatted as a 20-25 minute oral interview, one on one across from a stoic witness and the professor that remembers every nap you took in class. It takes one forgotten concept or wrong answer to drop a letter grade. Questions ramp up in difficulty and any time spent thinking of responses means less time to show A-grade knowledge in the latter material. This explains why I saw students studying full time all summer for the 7-8 courses (some Spring semester exams happen in August). There’s a re-examination option for oral exams but mobility students (you) don’t get that luxury.

Aside from these terrifying details, the course experience is fantastic — if you’re prepared to put in the work. Many professors are current leaders in their fields, showing off new material from the cutting-edge of applied science. Software exercises utilized modern and industry-relevant applications (though I had a couple concepts explained succinctly via FORTRAN code).

FYI, the exchange structure in 2018 included a flat-rate fee from UBC and waived fees at ETH so you could take as many courses as you were eligible for. Use this to your advantage. Many engineers took things like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and other out of scope topics for the sake of interest. Your exam registration happens later in the semester and you had no obligation to take the exam for these courses (i.e. to get recognition of them on your transcript). This may change down the road so just check these rules before your trip.

Here is the course list that I took with a brief review of each:

151-0361-00 An Introduction to the Finite-Element Method

The introduction lecture was comically-terrifying, as the professor skimmed through each course topic with key mathematical concepts. So much material was packed into the two hour lecture that I honestly thought I was expected to read half the textbook before classes begun. Speaking of which, it took a month of review and Googling to figure out the first 24 pages, which introduced the underlying principles and derivations.

I think this course is so important to modern day mechanical design. While you may not encounter FEM analysis in every job, the concepts you learn through the course can be applied to a variety of complex engineering problems. Computation time is expensive in professional settings, so knowing how to optimize your simulations for both time and accuracy improves your value to any company.

Despite the niche topic, I think this course made the most impact during my time at ETH.

151-0548-00 Manufacturing of Polymer Composites

The professor for this course regularly consults for the big aerospace and automotive companies while acting as head of the composites department. The 400-page textbook he wrote is a litany of relevant information in the analysis and production of various composites. This course felt like the final boss fight for mechanical engineering students, integrating topics from literally every fundamental course I’ve taken at UBC, as well as some material from my previous life science degree (brush up on your organic chemistry folks).

The material is incredibly useful for those getting into high-performance industries but this was also the toughest exam I took at ETH – an open-book, two-hour written monstrosity with 35 pages of questions and background information. I don’t think anyone finished writing it in the time given. However, the textbook is so good that I will be referencing it for all my future carbon projects (looking at you, Formula UBC).

151-0316-00 Methods in the Innovation Process

I took this course to see how design differed in Europe. The creativity components were a welcome change of pace from the theory overload of my other classes. As expected, a number of design methods and concepts carried over from our excellent offerings at UBC. The course was structured as a miniature design project; each team was expected to complete rounds of proposals and prototypes while exercising different methods of decision-making. I learned that ETH doesn’t require a major design course every year in their MECH program, but a number of these smaller project courses exist as options. It certainly seems ETH weighs undergrad towards the mathematics and fundamentals while UBC perhaps leans the other way.

The course instructors are professionals in their respective fields so the networking and coffee breaks are very worthwhile; consider the experience an opportunity to flex your design muscles and work with different engineering backgrounds. It’s a great way to meet local students too, as you spend many hours together during each workshop.

151-0280-00 Advanced Techniques for the Risk Analysis of Technical Systems

A refresher on stochastics, with emphasis on characterizing complex networks like transportation and energy grids. However, the material carries over to any system with multiple, independent parts. This is highly useful material for design and production engineering. I sometimes wish we were provided a stronger stats background at UBC, but I suppose fitting every “nice-to-have” into the program would keep us there forever.

151-0358-00 Structural Optimization

This course is an excellent complement to FEM (and conveniently, taught by the same professor during my stay). While you learn to solve particular load cases in FEM, Optimization teaches you how to automate the design process to find best-fit solutions. You learn enough in this course to write basic optimization scripts for small scale optimization problems (minimum mass design with target stiffness, for example). More importantly, the courses teach you what is going on behind the scenes in ANSYS or Inspire, so that you know exactly which configurations and how to interpret your results.

Living Expenses

Spend time shopping around for necessities: groceries, toiletries, etc can vary wildly in price from different shops. The quality spectrum seems much broader than in Canada, with organic (“Bio”), import, and many other options. Fortunately, I’ve found that most budget brands still tend to be high quality, often times better than the Canadian equivalent. Local dairy products and in-season produce are all excellent.

If you haven’t developed the habit yet, it’d be a good time to track your expenses and learn where your money goes every month. It’s tough to incorporate into daily routines as a stressed student, but ETH courses seem to happen in 2-3 hour blocks, minimizing time spent commuting to multiple hour-long sessions a week. Set up your own spreadsheet or use software like Mint or YNAB. You’ll be shocked at how quickly those frappes and/or gipfelis add up. I never budgeted during my first degree and by the end of first year I discovered $500 evaporated into bubble tea…

A good metric is to imagine the cost of a trip or experience you really enjoy, whether that’s travel, gastronomy, etc. Travel is absurdly affordable here, so it’s easier to put time into making coffee every morning when you’re saving 0.5 “Transit to Italy” every week.

ETH recommends setting aside 1750 CHF per month as typical cost of living, including rent, bills, etc. If you secure WOKO housing, this figure may be quite high. Here are a few ranges I saw during my exchange for monthly expenses:

• • 450 – 600 CHF rent
  • 65 – 100 CHF Swiss healthcare
  • 70 – 90 CHF monthly transit pass
  • 10 – 40 CHF phone plan
  • 150 – 400 CHF food (yikes)
  • 100 – 500 CHF leisure
  • 100 – 300 CHF irregular expenses (new clothes, one-time fees, whatever)

If you figure out batch-cooking at home, cycle or walk most places to save the monthly transit pass, and plan your weekend trips in advance (Check out SBB Supersaver tickets) you can get away with 1000 to 1200 CHF per month in total expenses. Most students seemed to be in the range of 1200 to 1500.

Fun fact: the last survey indicated a median monthly salary of 7500 CHF per month for technical positions in Switzerland.

With regards to leisure and travel, that 100-500 range depends a lot on transportation options. Switzerland’s domestic train system offers a bunch of Student perks to cut their relatively-high ticket prices. I took advantage of two key discounts during local travel while other students added a third:

1. Halbtax (Half-fare) Subscription
2. Supersaver tickets
3. Gleissieben (Gate Seven) Subscription

1 and 3 are both upfront payments for 12 months (with a possible 6 month refund point to get some money back I believe). The halbtax offers half price 2nd-class fares on almost every train any time of the day. Gleisseiben provides free travel to students (<25 years old) between 19:00 and 5:00. Almost everyone bought the halbtax, but do the math to see if Gleissieben would be worth it. I found most students traveled in groups and if only a few people had gleissieben they were usually outvoted regarding travel times.

Supersaver tickets are discounts for specific trains at specific times that you can find listed on the sbb website when you’re browsing potential trips. While normal train tickets allow travel on any line heading in your direction within a specific period of time, the Supersaver tickets limit you to one particular departure. These are nonrefundable so make sure you’re not late if you take advantage of this. Supersaver can be stacked with Halbtax which can be super useful, especially as they tend to be off-hour departure times which students can usually take advantage of.

I know it sounds complicated at first. It stays complicated once you get used to it.

Establishing Routines

After sorting out your favourite spots, it’s important to find a groove early-on. Jet lag, new people, weird class schedules, and the plethora of student activities/events will be super distracting. It was March by the time I had cracked open my course PDFs and printed them like all the local students had already done (P.S. your ETH card comes preloaded with more than enough print credit for you to print these all out on campus!). This groove can (and should) include adventuring time. Wander the dense city streets or hundreds of nature trails. Take the train to an unfamiliar place. It’s easy to get lost in Switzerland, but you’re always close to a railway, bus, or restaurant and they’ve never even heard of ghettos.

While it might feel like ETH classes provide a lot more free time than anticipated, fit some studying/reading of the lecture material in every week. It’s tough to do if you have classes with no weekly assignments and new travel propositions every weekend. Find an hour or two every day if possible, as the material stacks up very quickly. For example, my Finite Element class covered a month of material by North American standards within the first two lectures. Oral exam preparation is a different beast to written tests; more on this in later posts.

Set up calendar reminders or e-banking payments for monthly expenses. Many students forget about rent, phone bills, etc as they get used to their new bank accounts. New habits might include transferring funds from Canada to Switzerland, or converting Euros before trips abroad. You may have to make payments in person at the local post office so account for processing times. Late fees aren’t cheap here.

More about courses and examinations in the next post!

First Steps 2 – Electric Boogaloo: Visa, Residence Permit, Health Insurance, Bank Account

Part of the initial Mobility application to ETH includes the processing of a Visa Authorization form, which the Swiss Consulate needs to issue your official student visa. However, the fee for this authorization form wasn’t required until you get to ETH Zurich. It’s payable at the school, so don’t forget to pay this; supposedly many students do.

Residence Permit is listed in the ETH Zurich pre-trip documents package as obtainable after a certain number of weeks in Zurich. Try to beat the rush by getting your student documents as soon as possible from ETH. Importantly, the city will want your Matriculation paperwork that comes in this document package. Then, find your local city office and they can process the permit as long as you have everything exactly as described in the permit requirements list. Passport sized photos are used for a number of ID cards during your stay (off the top of my head, residence permit, transit pass, Erasmus Student Network card, International Driver’s License) and you can get them done at many automated photo booths around the city. Don’t be afraid to get the strip of 4 or 5 photos, as you’ll definitely make use of them.

Fun fact: In 2018, Zurich still had two operational automated dark-room photo booths that performed the same functions electromechanically as the modern digital ones — super cool to operate as aspiring mechanical engineers. I met the gentleman responsible for refilling the exposing chemicals and had a lovely chat. Try to find them on Google Maps if they’re still around!

Non-EU students pay a higher fee for the Residence Permit so make sure to bring a couple hundred Francs or set up a local bank account quickly.

Speaking of bank accounts, make sure to open one as soon as possible (if you require it). Some banks have been known to deny students if they are staying for less than 3-4 months. Single semester exchanges just barely satisfy this requirement! You’ll end up saving a bit of money going this route as the accounts are typically free for students and you avoid the fees that local Canadian credit and debit cards typically charge for usage in foreign currencies. Reward programs exist too that netted me about 100 francs by the end of my exchange. In addition, reputable, online services exist to transfer currencies between your CAD and Swiss accounts without having to go to pricy local currency places. Some of these services even have bright green international debit cards you can use to get cash from nearly any European ATM. Look for these 😉

German Classes

UZH, a sister university to ETH, offers an intensive German class that occurs before the start of semester and has limited seating. The language center or “Sprachenzentrum” will post the start and registration dates fairly early. I’d recommend doing the intensive course if you can; not only is it better timing as you’ll have a beginner’s grasp of German before school starts, but you’ll remember more of it since you’re immersed full time for two weeks. Semester courses only happen once or twice a week, with teachers reporting most students forget more of the beginning material by the middle or end of the semester.

Note: This will seem obvious to some, but dates are listed as DD.MM.YYYY which may be different than you’re used to; double check registration time zones and dates! People were still booking incorrect train tickets and accommodations halfway through semester because of these minor differences.

The intensive German class is also a great way to meet people outside of whichever residence you’re in. The class is typically other exchange students and you spend every day with them, so you’ll have plenty of opportunity to connect with people for alpine trips and other adventures before the semester really gets going. The teachers included a surprise session on tips and tricks around Switzerland. There were quite a few useful reminders in there, including various student discounts to take advantage of outside campus, travel discounts, and services such as bike and car shares that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. My class ended with a day trip to the local zoo and final “apero” with the teachers. Apero is another great opportunity to meet local and international students alike; don’t be afraid to exchange contact info after a short exchange. Sprachenzentrum supports all ETH and UZH programs so you may not get another chance!

Disclaimer: This was my experience during my particular exchange season; these to-do lists and processes may change pending updated ETH or UBC policies. None of the suggestions here should be taken as official instructions from any named organizations.

Here are a few things that I had to address in the first weeks. Make sure you keep an eye on the deadlines and instructions for all of these tasks. I’ll try to elaborate on them in the next couple posts.

• Dorm contract and first payment (Rent + Security deposit)
• Visa Authorization Fee (Payable to ETH)
• Residency Permit (Payable to the City of Zurich)
• Health Insurance (Payable to whichever company you choose)
• Bank Account
• Intensive German Class

Housing Search

Before all of the above, I was debating between finding my own place and roommates or taking advantage of WOKO, a student housing organization separate from ETH that places you in one of their dorms that vary wildly in configurations. Ultimately I went with WOKO as the dorms were typically 30-50% cheaper than sharing a 2-3 bedroom flat in Zurich. Plus, few landlords would choose an international student that communicated through phone calls over a local student or prospect tenant.

Check out their current properties here. You might notice the sprawled placement of these buildings compared to the ETH and UZH campuses. Remember Zurich is 680 years old (4.5 Canadas in SI units) and the campuses were established before student dorms became the norm. You might find the newer “Honggerberg” campus layout more familiar, but for those with classes in Zentrum, pay special attention to the net vs effective distances from your WOKO placement to campus; some residences that seem close or similarly-distanced may be much longer on transit. Meierwiesenstrasse 62 for example, looks just as close to Zentrum as something in Oerlikon but the steep winding nature of the topology there means one building might require 10-15 minutes longer to get downtown.

Note: WOKO will place you in an available building at their discretion but you have an opportunity afterwards to request a relocation if possible. WOKO dorms vary from townhouse style 4-8 bedroom units to true dorm buildings with shared bathrooms and kitchens across a whole floor of rooms. Naturally, there are advantages and disadvantages to both. I lived in what’s considered the “party dorm”. While you can’t influence your first placement, you can then petition to change the building after hearing from WOKO. The advantages and disadvantages are all vice-versa between the two. My dorm housed mostly international students, from Master’s to Post-Docs in various fields, with STEM being the majority. I got to meet friendly, brilliant people from all over the world. Exchange tends to select for adventurous types, so it was easy finding conversation and activities in the lounge.

Somewhere in Flims – One of many excursions organized in the dorms. 9 countries represented here!

Pain points include sharing a huge kitchen with 160 amateur chefs. While cookware was provided, most of them were burnt, melted, or broken by the third month. I’d suggest buying your own if you have sensitive food allergies. Meal times meant crowded spaces too, so some strategy is involved in eating quickly. Some students formed cooking clubs, which seemed really successful. By the summer months, we had BBQ options outdoors. Some students almost ate all their meals at the school cafeteria. This option was about 40-60% more expensive than preparing your own meals.

The townhouses seemed quieter and much cleaner, with a higher likelihood of better shared areas like kitchens and bathrooms. However, friends reported a lot more variance in the “vibe” of the residence, with their experiences depending heavily on the personalities of their roommates. Naturally, it’s less likely that you’ll meet a best friend in a random set of 8 than 160. We had some people hanging out in the party dorm most nights just to get away from the isolation at home.

When you first move in to the WOKO residence, you’ll have to go to the separate WOKO office to sign the official contract, bring it to your residence manager/representative, and get your room checked over for pre-existing issues. Make sure you’re thorough with reporting any pre-existing issues, as failure to have written reports of a stain or dent can cost you at the end of the stay. Salaries are high in Switzerland, so you can imagine labour costs in repairing a wall or floor.

The first payment includes the security deposit and can typically be sorted out before you leave Canada. I wired it through my bank at a local branch fairly easily. Just bring in the deposit/first rent forms that WOKO provide once they place you somewhere.

Other steps will follow in the next post!
Jason

Hoi,

I’ve spent just over two months in Europe by now and thought I’d reflect on the initial phases of this Coordinated International Experience. Here are the topics for today:

1) Degree scheduling and Preparation

2) Picking a Destination

1) Degree Scheduling and Preparation (see also: Kirsten Meng’s excellent CIE post)
CIE offers a unique set of services for Applied Science students, ensuring a smooth exchange. The APSC faculty have done an incredible amount of legwork to vet schools and their respective courses for equivalency. This means you’ll get to pick from a list of pre-approved courses and not worry about manually applying for transfer credits later. These courses typical apply to your technical elective requirements, opening up those respective semesters when you get home.

Fun fact: this kind of commitment to the undergraduate experience is what brought me to UBC MECH in the first place. I was fortunate enough to connect with Dr. Peter Cripton for an informational interview before choosing Applied Science for my second degree.

CIE can be done in a few slots within your degree schedule, but for me the most streamlined option was to schedule my exchange directly after MECH3.5. As a co-op student, that meant sacrificing a work term and replacing the income with a giant money pit. Fortunately, this pit spits out unique learning experiences and chocolate (the chocolate here, oh man). I wanted to graduate in 2019 and the Co-op office was gracious enough to waive the last work term requirement for CIE students. Other perks include reducing MECH4 by 9 credits and gaining access to course topics not offered at UBC or even in Canada. ETH Zurich in particular emphasizes entrepreneurial spirit and interdisciplinary projects; I’d highly recommend taking project courses if possible. Fundamental courses will likely be similar across the world, but each region will have unique perspectives on innovation, design, and other more-subjective areas of engineering. Take a look at the MAVT department at ETH for an example of the ongoing research and student projects happening here.

2) Picking a Destination

I first heard of ETH Zurich during my first co-op term at Verathon Medical. One particular project led me to work done by a UBC alum working at the Disney Labs in Zurich. As one does, I fell down the YouTube rabbit hole, and couldn’t believe some of the projects produced through ETH. It turns out there was a time when Switzerland was behind the rest of the world technologically, and the country’s catch-up mentality has propelled them to fund world-class technical institutes. When I discovered the ETH FSAE team, AMZ Racing, and their world-record setting FormulaE vehicle, I was hooked.

If you’re unsure, look at the course lists offered at each institution and get a sense for their specialties. Look at the country and culture too. Where do you want to invest your valuable time and energy? What kind of leisure activities resonate with you? What new things do you want to try? Personally, I made sure to list every free weekend I’d have during my semester abroad and created a list of activities with as many or more entries. I wanted to sacrifice sleep to absorb as much as possible from my exchange. Switzerland is an incredible melting pot of cultures and coming from a mixed upbringing, I never quite fit in a singular community; the same sort of uprooted diversity in Zurich resonated strongly with me. A short bus ride to cheap flights around Europe didn’t hurt either. I’ll write about some of the interesting people I’ve met during these travels in another post.

Sidenote: Despite situating in the center of Europe, Zurich is an expensive hub for flights around the continent (check travel websites for quotes out of Zurich versus Milan or Stuttgart; mein Gott!).

The next few posts will talk about packing and moving, first steps in Switzerland (there are many), budgeting (!), and chasing opportunity during your time abroad.

I might post a supplemental note on the ridiculous lengths I took to bring my bike to Europe. It was a great exercise in MECH3.5 design work and may help those looking to keep costs down. I probably saved about $1000 CDN all told.

Tschuss for now!
Jason