Category Archives: MECH Coursework

The Scenic Route: My Coop Journey through Research Labs, Fusion, and EV chargers

If you’ve ever felt like your degree is taking a bit longer than planned—welcome to the club! It will take me six years to wrap up my degree (two more than the usual), but I wouldn’t trade those extra years for anything. Why? Because they gave me a chance to dive deeper into the industry through a series of coop placements that shaped my career path in ways I never imagined.

My journey kicked off with a six-month internship in a research lab, part of the CREATE U program. The project? Working on mechanical assemblies for bellows. While the task was hands-on and technical, it was the people around me who really expanded my horizons. I spent my days learning from grad students who introduced me to the world of controllers and embedded C programming. Soon enough, I was helping them optimize scripts and—surprise, surprise—my interest in software engineering was born. This experience planted the seed for my eventual specialization in mechatronics.

Next, I found myself at General Fusion, a company aiming to achieve commercial nuclear fusion. For 20 months, I worked as a Diagnostics and Controls Engineer. I started off working on mechanical diagnostics, but the more I interacted with the machine, the more curious I became about the data pipelines and control systems behind it. Slowly but surely, I began taking on software side projects, which eventually led to a full transition into software and controls engineering and honing my DevOps Skills.

Photo By Meet Nandu, Bellow Installation and Control Design for Laser Additive Manufacturing Machine

Photo By Meet Nandu, General Fusion Plasma Injector

The best part about working at General Fusion wasn’t just the complex, scalable systems I helped design and maintain—it was the friends I made along the way. From bike weeks to Christmas parties, the sense of community at General Fusion was unbeatable. Plus, who can say no to running the Sun Run with your coworkers?

Photo By General Fusion, the team

For the last 8 months of my coop adventure, I worked as a Software Automation Test Engineer at Delta Q Technologies, a company focused on electric vehicle chargers. By this point, my transition from mechanical engineering to software was complete. I spent my time developing test system infrastructures, testing and implementing firmware and diving deeper into product development on the commercial side of the industry. It was here that I really honed my industry skills and learned how products move from concept to market.

The work was great, but I have to say, Delta Q’s company culture was a highlight. Even though I worked remotely most days, I had the chance to join engineering team-building activities, Soccer Fridays, Basketball Wednesdays, and a second round of the Sun Run. Oh, and did I mention Delta Q has a pet-friendly policy? I used to be a little scared of dogs but I ended up making a dog bestie at the office— a character development arc for me haha!

Photo By Delta Q technologies, Easter Bunny Chocolate Decor on IC650 Charger

Photo By Meet Nandu, with a dog (Oliverrrrr!!)

All in all, my coop experiences were invaluable. They not only shaped my technical skills but also gave me memories and friendships that will last a lifetime. It’s incredibly important to explore and understand what works best for you before entering the real world. Maybe, like me, your interests lie in controls or software rather than pure mechanical design. Or maybe you want to dive deeper into dynamics, simulations, and CFD. Some of you might even be wondering, “Am I in the right degree?”

Here’s the thing: Mechanical engineering is broad, and your skillset can take you into just about any industry. You don’t have to be a computer science major to get into software, just like you don’t need to stick to traditional mechanical roles. Whether it’s materials, structures, electronics, or biomechanics, they all interact with mechanics in some way, and with a mechanical degree, you can pursue almost anything. So, if you’re feeling a little lost right now, don’t worry—there’s always a way to figure out what you really want to do.

Currently in my last year of school, I’m working as a Web Development Assistant. Beyond part-time bug fixing I love this role of a full time guide for you all, a voice for UBC Mechs! If you’re reading this, I hope you get the chance to dive into similar experiences, and if you’ve already had some, I’d love to hear your stories! You can reach me at studentassistant@mech.ubc.ca.

Here’s to the scenic route—it might take longer, but the views are unbeatable!

MECH Options: Flex

An EEG device similar to one used in MECH 465, used to record brain waves. Photo by Mindfield Biosystems on Unsplash.

You might have heard about the various options that MECH offers for students to specialize for their 3rd and 4th year. These are the options:

Flex – maintain a broad focus of MECH, with more freedom for choosing courses
Aerospace – anything to do with flight, such as aircraft and spaceflight
Biomechanics and Medial Devices – motion within the human body and designing devices to improve human health
Energy & Environment – energy, sustainability, transportation
Mechatronics – combining MECH with computer, electrical, and controls engineering
Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering – marine transportation to offshore wind farms

For more information about the MECH options and selection process, visit the UBC MECH website.

Today I’ll be talking about my experience with the Flex option. I’ll describe why I chose this option and what it looks like in comparison to the others.

Why I chose the Flex Option

Although I knew I was interested in mechanical engineering, I wasn’t sure exactly what field interested me most. Since mechanical engineering is such a broad field, there are numerous industries that we can work in. The Flex Option includes 22 credits of technical electives that students can choose from. This opportunity to continue exploring different interests and customize my degree seemed like the right fit for me. Additionally, I think that a good engineer is one that is well-rounded. All options and MECH have an aspect of this, where we have a standard set of mandatory classes in things from heat transfer to controls. The Flex Option has the most support for this well-rounded approach, since students can choose so many of their electives. Mechanical engineering interfaces with multiple areas. When designing any system, being able to see it from multiple sides – from electronics, software, energy, thermodynamics, manufacturing, and more – that is what allows us to create successful designs.

Elective options

In this section I’ll discuss some of the electives I chose, and what others in Flex have also enjoyed. Some of my electives were taken abroad on my exchange at DTU (read more here), but I was still able to have a lot of choices at UBC.

I took:

MECH 380, Fluid Dynamics: Focuses on external and compressible flow for applications to planes, automobiles, pipelines, etc. I took this class to open doors if I decided to learn more about aerospace.
MECH 327 , Thermodynamics II: Air cycles, gas mixtures, and reacting systems, among other topics. It was interesting to learn more about how engines work – I felt that this was important knowledge to have as mechanical engineers.
MANU 465, AI and Machine Learning Applications in Manufacturing: AI and machine/deep learning in Python with applications to manufacturing processes. With all the new advancements in technology these days, I wanted to gain some basic knowledge to stay current! Our final project was to use an EEG device and interpret the data using machine learning principles. My group did ours on measuring the change in brain activity while listening to different genres of music.
MECH 496, Engineering Management: Organization and management structures, finance, project management, and other business topics. I was always interested in business before I chose engineering, and have thought about doing an MBA. This was a good overview of what that might look like. As engineers we usually either go into the technical side or management side of a company.
MECH 436, Fundamentals of Injury Biomechanics: anatomy, impact experiments, test devices. As someone who grew up playing sports, I’m excited to learn about how sports equipment is developed and why injuries occur! I’m interested in getting some breadth, testing out if I’m interested in a more biomedical focused field.

If you’re like me and are unsure about what industry you want to work in, or want to keep your options open, or just want to try multiple things before graduating, the Flex Option might be a good choice for you!

Exploring MECH 423: A Hands-On Journey in Mechatronics

If you’re considering mechatronics in your mechanical engineering journey, MECH 423: Mechatronics Product Design offers a glimpse into the field’s exciting and interdisciplinary nature. It’s a lab-focused course where you apply concepts from various areas to build systems from the ground up. Here’s what to expect and how it shaped my learning experience.

MECH 423 is entirely project based, which makes it one of the most practical, hands-on experiences you can have in your mechatronics degree (alongside Capstone) where you will use your knowledge from controller design (MECH 467), sensors and actuators (MECH 420) and other software courses like (CPSC 259, CPEN 333) to develop a mechatronics product. The course is a marathon of problem-solving and design challenges that push you to learn by doing—and trust me, it’s as rewarding as it sounds.

The journey begins with foundational labs:

Lab 1: Understanding the software architecture of a mechatronic system. Here, you dive into C# programming and learn how to create user interfaces (UI). This forms the basis of how you’ll interact with mechatronic systems.
Lab 2: Embedded system design in embedded C. You’ll explore the intricacies of firmware development, bare-metal programming, and the embedded architecture that forms the backbone of modern mechatronic devices.
Lab 3: A culmination of the first two labs. You solder a PCB, integrate motor drivers, and program the logic for a two-axis gantry system. This involves blending hardware and software skills—everything from controlling motors with firmware to interfacing with a C#-based UI application.

And finally we work on a project of our choice that synthesizes everything. This is where creativity and technical knowledge collide, and you can create something truly interesting and meaningful in a short span of around 1 month.

Our Project: A Robotic Gripper

(You can also read about Janet’s MECH 423 project here.)

For my project, we built a robotic gripper that could adjust its grip force. The idea was simple but important—robots need to handle all kinds of objects light and heavy, long and narrow, short and bulky. The goal was to design a gripper capable of adjusting its grip force to interact safely with objects or even humans. Imagine a robotic arm picking up both a heavy box and a delicate sugar cube—it needs to know how much force to apply to avoid damaging the object.

Robotic Gripper End Effector

Load Calibration of the gripper.

Here’s how we approached it:

Gripper Design: We designed a sturdy yet flexible mechanism for gripping objects securely without causing damage.
Force Control: We implemented a current-control system on firmware and calibrated it using a load cell to measure the force. A potentiometer let us manually adjust the grip for different objects.
Electrical Components: We worked with motor drivers and hall sensors to power the system and provide feedback.
User Interface: Using python, we built a simple application to monitor the force being applied.

The design day demo involved putting our finger in between the gripper and demonstrating how a low grip target set on the gripper makes it easy to pick objects like sugar cubes without crushing them and reduce pinch hazard during human – robot interaction and at the same time it can pick up weights as heavy as 20 kgs without hesitation.

Advanced robotics use computer vision, train on input data and finally categorize, detect and recognize objects and set a target force based on the object in front of the gripper. Given the timeframe and the scope of the project, we didn’t go that far but we still managed to build a reliable, functional system we were proud of.

The process wasn’t without its challenges. Debugging became our second nature—almost like a rite of passage. Spending 3–4 hours in the lab every evening (and occasionally battling headaches from stubborn bugs) was tough, but the satisfaction of seeing our system come to life made it all worthwhile.

MECH 423 shows you the practical side of mechatronics: building, testing, and refining systems until they work seamlessly. It’s not always easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding.

Yes, the challenges are real. Expect sleepless nights, endless debugging sessions, and moments of self-doubt. But with every solved bug, every lab success, and every project completed, you’ll find yourself becoming a more confident, capable engineer. This is when you start to think beyond grades and truly appreciate how seamlessly these products have incorporated into our lives and marvel the engineering going behind it.

If you thrive on challenges and crave the satisfaction of creating something from scratch, mechatronics is for you. The degree equips you with a unique skill set that blends mechanical, electrical, and software engineering—preparing you for a future in automation, robotics, IoT, and beyond.

So, prospective students: dive in. Embrace the bugs, the setbacks, and the late nights. Because at the end of it all, you’ll look back and realize it was worth every single moment. And who knows? Maybe one day, you’ll be designing systems that change the world.

MECH Project Courses

A 3D printer creating a new part. Photo by Osman Talha Dikyar on Unsplash.

One of my favourite parts of the MECH program is the design project courses we have every year. It feels like these are what all of the theoretical studying in lectures are meant for. They encourage critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving skills, and are very transferrable to what work might look like after graduating. This post is about each of the project courses and my experiences through each one.

MECH 220 – Technical Skills Practicum

Student-made magnetic levitation device that levitates a miniature version of the UBC Engineering Cairn. The circuit board and magnetic coil is visible.

Complete MagLev device

This course is the first thing you’ll take as a new MECH student! It’s structured as four one-week modules that cover machining, engineering drawings, computer aided design, and electronics. As a result, you will create a magnetic levitation (MagLev) that showcases your learning over the entire month. To this day, this is still one of my favourite courses in MECH. The machining module was my favourite, where we got to use the mill, lathe, press, and various hand tools. It felt like we were real engineers, not just students studying equations. I was also able to bond with my classmates during this time, as we would see each other every day, all day, working together.

MECH 223 – Mechanical Design

Race track meant for hovercrafts roped off and surrounded by MECH students.

Competition day.

Our creatively decorated hovercraft.

At the end of MECH 2, we form teams and design something together. Our task was to design a hovercraft for racing competitions against other teams. The hovercraft needed to travel quickly, stop accurately, and maintain specific speeds using an RC transmitter. Using our knowledge of fluid dynamics and material properties, we designed an air cushion for reducing sliding friction on the track. Our design uses two propellers connected to DC motors, a foam/cardboard base, plastic skirt, and 3D printed mounts. It was a great end of year project to recap all our learning in MECH 2.

MECH 328 – Mechanical Engineering Design Project

A large search and rescue boat sits by the dock in the marina. The boat has a soft hull and an observation area for crew.

SAR boat we toured during a site visit!

Inside the search and rescue boat observation area, the control dashboard is lit up with navigation and many controls.

Learning about the control interface.

For the third year project course, we were given an open ended problem and had freedom to choose what design to theoretically create. The prompt was to remove combustion engines from a product, and replace the energy source with something more sustainable. My group chose to electrify search and rescue (SAR) boats. Since this project has more of a focus on stakeholder consultation, we were able to meet with and tour a SAR boat thanks to Royal Canadian Marine SAR volunteers. It was interesting to explore something I didn’t know much about, but I wish that there was a build component to the project.

MECH 45X – Capstone

A current solution – which we’d like to make higher tech! Photo by Stephanie LeBlanc on Unsplash

It’s currently my final year, and I’m just starting to ramp up my Capstone project. In this course, you are able to choose or rank what prompt you are interested in, and have more freedom with choosing your team members. The projects all interface with real clients, and typically you would build a working prototype by the end of the year. For my capstone, my team is working on designing a better wildlife hair snag to collect DNA samples for biological research! It’s still early on in the process, but I’m looking forward to building something that will be used in the real world.

If you like solving design problems and thinking of novel solutions, you will enjoy the project courses in MECH! From participating in these projects I feel better equipped and more confident about my knowledge and experiences going into the industry. I would encourage anyone to make the most of this time, where we can explore our interests and have design control over our work, which is not always the case post-grad.

Prioritizing Mental Health During Exam Season

Exam season—two words that instantly bring stress to every student’s mind. For us in mechanical engineering, balancing difficult courses, projects, and the pressure to perform well can be overwhelming. But while studying and acing exams is important, taking care of your mental health during this high-stress period is even more crucial.

Image Credit: r/sciencememes

For me, de-stressing is key to staying focused and relaxed. Going for a run, playing soccer, or doing a quick workout really helps me clear my mind. Physical activity works wonders when you’re stuck in study mode for hours, and it doesn’t have to be complicated—just get moving. Whether it’s hitting the gym or taking a 15-minute walk around campus, you’ll feel the difference. It gives your brain a break, helps with focus, and resets your energy.

Sleep—Easier Said Than Done, Right?

Getting 8-9 hours of sleep before an exam is what I aim for, but I know that’s not everyone’s reality—especially for those who like pulling all-nighters. I’ve found that sleep is one of the biggest contributors to my performance. Sure, it’s easier said than done, but if you can manage even a few nights of proper rest leading up to exams, you’ll feel a lot more prepared. When I head into an exam, I go with a relaxed mindset, hoping for the best but knowing that a well-rested brain will work more efficiently than one running on caffeine and no sleep.

Study Habits: Different for Everyone

Everyone studies in their own way. Some people create meticulous notes, formula sheets, PowerPoints, or flashcards. For me, I’m all about pen and paper. I like solving problems on blank sheets, getting my thoughts out of my head and onto the page. Now, I’m not the most organized—I tend to overwrite on the same paper with different course material or random thoughts. It may not look pretty, but it works for me.

If you’re like me and sometimes your thoughts are racing in all directions, here’s a trick: Treat your mind like a program running multiple threads. When I get overwhelmed, I use a mental “task queue”—I prioritize the most important task, focus on it, and “dequeue” it by writing it down if I get stuck. I switch to the next task, and return to the first one once I have more clarity. This stops the mental race conditions (yeah, that’s the programmer in me talking!) and helps me stay focused.

Fueling Your Brain: Hydration and Good Food

Don’t forget the basics—hydration and good food. I always keep water with me and try to eat well during exam season. It’s easy to neglect proper meals when you’re cramming, but you’ll perform better if your body has the right fuel. Trust me, energy drinks and chips won’t cut it long term.

A Final Thought: Exams Don’t Define You

Here’s the most important thing I can tell you: a piece of paper does not determine who you are or what you will become. There will be easy exams and difficult ones—that’s inevitable. But your mental health and well-being should always come first. The stress you feel now is just a small piece of your journey, and if you consistently put in effort over time, that hard work will pay off. Looking back, you’ll see that one difficult exam was just a bump in the road of your personal growth.

To everyone reading this: You’ve made it this far in mechanical engineering or you’re planning to, which means you’re already incredibly smart and capable. Be proud of yourself. Give yourself a pat on the back, take care of your mind and body, and get ready to give your best shot to the exams ahead.

Good luck—you’ve got this! (╯▽╰ )

Undergraduate Research in Mech

If you’re a Mech student, you probably love solving problems and asking questions. That’s what research is all about—except, this time, you get to ask the questions and figure out the problems. Unlike your typical assignments where you’re given all the instructions upfront, research is the deep end of open-ended problem solving. You’ve had a taste of it with the MECH 2 design challenge or your Capstone project. But what if you’re eager for more?

If you’ve ever thought about research or grad school, you might have felt like it’s just out of reach. I’ve been there, too. Balancing the intense workload of Mech with thoughts of future research or grad studies can seem daunting. But after a few paid and voluntary research terms, I’ve learned that research isn’t as out of reach as it seems. Thanks to the guidance of some amazing faculty and staff, I realized it’s very possible—and now, I want to help you see the same. Below are a few tips to help integrate research and grad school into your undergrad life, even with a hectic schedule.

1. Ask Your Professors About Their Research

This is the golden rule of getting started in research: talk to your professors. After-class chats with profs are criminally underrated. Profs are not just there to teach but are often involved in exciting research projects. Many of them are on the lookout for curious and motivated undergrads who want to get involved.

A great way to start is by visiting the Mech department website and looking up your professors’ research areas. Find something that piques your interest? Stay after class or shoot them an email asking about their work. Not only will this give you insight into their research, but it also opens the door to potential opportunities for you to join their lab.

2. Present Your Work at the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference (MURC)

Every March, UBC hosts the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference (MURC), where undergrads present their research to their peers, family, and faculty. This event, run by students for students, is a celebration of undergraduate research with workshops, presentations, and keynote speakers.

If you’re working on any UBC-affiliated research, this is your chance to present it to the world—or, at least, the UBC community. It’s also a great place to volunteer or just attend to network with fellow students and researchers. Either way, MURC is a fantastic way to get inspired and find out what kinds of research are happening around campus.

3. Check Out CREATE-U

For Mech students specifically, the CREATE-U program is a perfect introduction to research. This summer program allows you to earn six credits while getting paid to work in a Mech lab. It also counts as a co-op work term, so you can gain valuable experience without delaying your graduation.

The program includes two courses: one on academic research methods (MECH 497) and the other on academic writing (MECH 498). These courses are designed to support your summer research project, which takes place under the guidance of a graduate mentor and a faculty supervisor. The research you do can even count toward a Master’s or PhD at UBC, giving you a head start on grad studies if that’s the direction you want to go.

4. Enroll in MECH 493 or MECH 410C/F

When you reach your final year, consider signing up for MECH 493 or MECH 410C/F. These are research-based courses where you’ll spend the term working on a project instead of attending regular lectures and exams. Every year, professors post research projects that undergrads can apply to join. You’ll need to contact the professor directly to gain approval, but once you’re in, you’ll spend your semester tackling real-world research problems.

MECH 493 is a two-term, 3-credit course, while MECH 410C/F is split into two one-term, 3-credit courses. The kind of research you’ll do will depend on the lab you join, so it’s a good idea to ask professors what to expect before signing up.

5. Keep an Open Mind

The most important thing you can do is stay curious and open to new possibilities. Research is all about discovery, and sometimes that means finding excitement in unexpected places. You never know what might spark your passion until you dive in. By exploring research as an undergrad, you’ll not only gain invaluable experience but also potentially secure reference letters for grad school and build connections with faculty members.

So, if you’re thinking about research or grad school but feel overwhelmed by the idea, know that it’s more accessible than you think. With a bit of curiosity and a willingness to ask questions, you can find research opportunities that fit into your busy schedule and give you a whole new perspective on problem-solving.

Managing Stress

In third year, my life became a feverish balancing act. It was the year I took up 6+3 first and second term courses while trying my hand at leadership on the SUBC drivetrain team. In September, I had moved to downtown Vancouver with friends after living with family for years in Richmond. It was an exciting transition that would kickstart a much more social life – something I’d craved for a while.

I remember brimming with energy those first few months. On SUBC, I had assembled a strong team ready to tackle the design of our submarine gearbox. Classes kept me engaged and eager to learn more. I even found time to enjoy the downtown high life with friends and roommates.

I flew through first semester, eventually hitting second. That’s when my schedule changed dramatically as my SUBC commitment grew. My Saturdays became fulltime SUBC work sessions, pushing homework to Sundays. Soon enough, I was working 7 days a week, often more than 8 hours a day consecutively. Fewer were the weekends I found time for leisure.

“Paltry,” you might be thinking, “that’s Mech bread and butter.” And I would have agreed with you. My meager 12 credit course load in second semester signaled no excuse to compromise working hard. After all, now I had too much free time on my hands! In no universe could I allow myself to perform poorly. As the semester progressed, this mindset became increasingly sabotaging.

Before I knew it: burnout! It’s a condition I didn’t entirely understand or even really believe. After all, stress fuels productivity—until it doesn’t. Reality set in when I began to notice growing frustration over the simplest tasks. Exhaustion seemed to kick in unusually quickly. Ignoring these telltale symptoms, I fell into a cycle of downplaying burnout, reminding myself that I’d survived MECH 2 during COVID, so obviously I could survive any onslaught.

But despite my rationalization, every bit of work continued to feel like a step in some gargantuan supertask. I thought that my effort and energy could only be bounded by ambition, but much like an apparently infinite series, I discovered they needed to converge to a finite sum.

Even precious downtime with friends seemed to feel like a burden. An ever-present mental checklist fogged my brain, pulling me from enjoying life in the moment. I was chronically anxious that I had forgotten some crucial SUBC task or course assignment. My confidence waned and grades declined. I fell ill with a prolonged seasonal cold and experienced constant back pain – all the while beating myself up over being so “weak.” My stubborn work ethic turned exhaustion into a cruel measure of self-worth.

As a workaholic, the line between dedication and self-neglect blurs as perfectionism clashes with the need for rest. In my experience, this made burnout a nearly imperceptible threat. When your commitments start feeling like they’re getting to you, ask yourself:

Have I been feeling exhausted recently?
Do I feel ineffective at the work I’m doing?
Do I feel distant from my work or a loss of interest in it?
Am I feeling easily irritable?

If your answer is yes to one or more of these, I encourage you to critically reflect on your workload, schedule, and mental wellbeing. According to Mayo Clinic, among the biggest signs of burnout are exhaustion, reduced efficacy, depersonalization, and cynicism. This can make it very challenging to honestly assess yourself. Verbalizing my frustration with a supportive friend was a great way to get an outsider’s perspective on my situation. The UBC Student Services website also offers a comprehensive guide to managing stress responses, emphasizing support-seeking, relaxation activities, exercise, sleep, and mindfulness practice. These tools, while not guaranteed cure-alls, can help you think about how best to manage your response to stress. In my experience, starting with the simple admission that I even had burnout was a great way to dissolve the ego that kept me from addressing it.

Why? Because ego has no place when health is at stake. Consider the fact that prolonged burnout can even heighten susceptibility to depression and illness.

Unfortunately, Mech can certainly seem like the perfect breeding ground for stress-induced burnout and complications. I take issue with the student culture that accepts these as necessary corequisites to being a Mech student, and worse yet, the subculture that flaunts their stress to signal the program’s superiority over others. Stress is how our bodies tell us that something about our situation needs to change. A healthy amount of stress can motivate us to excel, while stress in excess immobilizes. There is nothing commendable or useful about the latter.

My fear while addressing my burnout was “what if by letting myself relax, my grades slump and the drivetrain team loses momentum?” It felt like an impermissible compromise. But the reality was that my grades and drivetrain team were suffering as a result of my burnout anyway. It was useful to reframe self-care as an investment in my future performance, especially for when it might really matter, like during midterms, finals, or the homestretch just before a submarine competition.

Mech demands more than academic prowess—it demands resilience, reflection, and adaptability. You might be pleasantly surprised what the occasional movie, workout, or hangout might do for your mental health and grades. I certainly was.

Exchange and extending your degree

So. I’m planning on taking a 6 year undergrad. That’s a lot. Basically, with this post, I’m going to talk about why I’m extending my degree, a bit about my exchange, and… yeah. Maybe you’ll find some of this useful and relevant to you, or maybe not.

Essentially, I’m planning my degree outline to look like this:

	Term 1	Term 2	Summer
Year 1	Study	Study	Off
Year 2	Study	Study	Co-op
Year 3	Co-op	Study	Work Learn
Year 4	Exchange	Exchange	Co-op
Year 5	Study	Study	Co-op
Year 6	Study	Study	Graduate!

which you can compare to what your MECH degree is supposed to look like here.

The main reason for changing my degree to six years, is because of my exchange. I’ll be going on exchange in Germany, where their term is October-March. Because of the timing, I have to take both winter terms off to do the exchange. At least I can knock off some upper year courses though, right? Hahaha… since I don’t speak German (at least very well), I have to take Masters courses, as most of their undergraduate courses are in German. I couldn’t find any Masters courses that fulfilled my UBC course requirements, so I will be counting all of my exchange courses as technical electives. In Mechatronics, we get something like one technical elective. So essentially, I’m taking an entire year of my degree to get a single elective course.

Why am I doing this then? Mainly, to explore my interests. I’m currently interested in medical applications of robotics, which as you can imagine, you don’t get much exposure to in an undergraduate Mechatronics degree. Through my exchange, I’ll get to take specialized Masters courses in that field. The hope is that when I return to UBC, I’ll have a better idea of exactly what I want to do with my degree (unless of course, I end up hating medical robotics), and can potentially get involved with research, and find co-ops in that field.

In addition, I’m planning to drop a Jan-Apr co-op term, and replace it with a study term. This will allow me to take a reduced course load, which I want to do for multiple reasons. Mainly, I want more free time. MECH is a demanding program, and it can be difficult to pursue hobbies and passions while taking a full course load. In addition, you are able to focus on the courses you have a lot more. Even taking one less course this previous term, I found that I understood the content in my other courses much more, and my grades improved. If you’re thinking about pursuing grad school, it can be beneficial to take time to focus on classes, in addition to extra curriculars.

So, there you have it. A little bit about my degree outline, and my reasons for changing it up. Many people come into MECH with the idea that they’ll have a straight forward degree that they can plan from day 1. However, there are a large amount of people who diverge from the standard time table, for many different reasons. Whether it’s for personal or academic reasons, extending your degree says nothing about your abilities. Don’t be discouraged if you find that your degree is progressing differently than planned, you’re not alone!

MECH 423: Self-Balancing Robot

Hello new and old friends! Welcome back to the Mech Ambassadors Blog! I am very excited to share with you all a project I am currently working on for my Mechatronic Product Design course.

MECH 423 is centered around learning and applying firmware knowledge to integrate what you have learned within your undergrad to a complex final project of your choice. This specific course teaches firmware writing to communicate with motor drivers, accelerometers, and encoders. Rather than a final exam, we have 3 labs and 1 final project which build up our final course grade. After polishing our C# and C, developing firmware for a close loop control system, we design our own final project which includes 3 deliverables: a proposal, a video of the final product, and a final report due 2 days after the presentation.

The project is to be designed and presented on Dec.9th which is less than a month away. My lab partner and I just submitted our project proposal on Monday and are very excited to get a start on the robot. This final project comes with a multitude of challenges but we are aiming to integrate art and mechatronics in our device.

The objective of the project is to develop a self-balancing device using a dual motor control system. The device will take the appearance of a Pokeball, hiding all the hardware components within an enclosure and can open to show small figurines. The goal of the device is to balance the figurines contained within the device enclosure. The device will primarily function as an art form. There are many collectors who look for interesting workpieces, this self-balancing robot will be of great interest and act as a centerpiece! There is no circular self-balancing robot on the market at present, while there are designs for the Star Wars BB-8, as of this moment, there are no Pokeballs. We will be able to promote engagement in the STEM field by bringing to life a childhood cartoon object which will grasp the interest of students from kindergarten to grade 12.

Breaking down the project into 5 functions include:

Gyroscope interface circuit
- determine and measure the rate of angular motion of our device
Filter with gyroscope and accelerometer
- integrate gyroscope and accelerometer to create a complimentary filter for angular position
Motor driver
- operate 2 motors simultaneously and integrate the motors with the rest of the system
Closed loop control
- use PI/D control to integrate all the systems together in a closed loop for stability
Design and build
- Design the enclosure to mount the mechanical and electrical components.

We are waiting on approval before sourcing parts and starting on the design. Bookmark the blog and check back next week for updates!

May your gears always mesh!

My summer research program with MECH CREATE-U

Walking past the closed doors of research labs felt like taking a peek into a vault of unfound knowledge with students and mentors huddled around what oftentimes looked like a sci-fi device. The sight has always fascinated me, and I wanted to try it out and see what research is without committing my entire Master’s degree to it. The CREATE-U project was helpful in addressing this, where I could get a taste of what research is like so that I could figure out if I wanted it or not in the future.

Poster presentation at the end of the CREATE-U program

One of the biggest questions I had starting off is how a research project is different from the numerous design projects we’ve undertaken during our regular coursework. We’ve all had a taste of what an engineering project is like starting with the cardboard chair – we have a known deliverable and we try to make our way to it through a defined process – but my research experience was quite different.

Unlike a design project, the final deliverable is left to us to choose. I initially thought that would make it simpler – what I didn’t expect was the number of rabbit holes it would open up during the first few weeks as I tried to figure out what direction I wanted my project to take. It was an exciting, overwhelming feeling when every new paper I read gave me a new idea of what I could do as a part of my project. I ended up deciding on studying the flow characteristics of aerosolized powder drugs flowing through a catheter under the overarching project that my faculty supervisor had given me and the Master’s student mentoring me. Okay, that sounds like a lot of words that probably doesn’t make too much sense. Well, it didn’t to me either, but that’s part of the fun and the process! Starting off and learning something new that you haven’t seen before and then trying to ask and answer questions that might not have been covered. Over a few weeks, I’d taken my basic knowledge of fluid mechanics and used those basic building blocks to learn about multiphase flow and a few other things to be able to take this problem head-on.

We also had regularly scheduled classes where we talked about research practices and writing styles, and initially, I thought that would just be adding more to my plate of responsibilities. However, getting some context around my research work was immensely helpful in orienting myself through the process, as well as knowing I wasn’t alone in it with the nine of us in the cohort getting to bounce ideas off each other. There were quite a few weeks where it was busier than I thought it would be with both coursework and research work picking up pace simultaneously. It all paid off with excitement of designing my own experimental setup, assembling it and then running experiments to answer a question that I found worth investigating! It was also a very weird and proud feeling when I had to present my findings in front of research faculty members – and for once I knew a little bit more about the topic than they did.