Mech Ambassadors – Page 2 – The inside scoop on the life of a UBC Mech student

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.

Surviving winter

Vancouver winters. They may not be full of snow and ice storms like the rest of Canada, but they do involve a severe lack of sun and no shortage of rain. Coming from Ontario, I honestly thought winters on the west coast would be a joke. And although temperatures don’t dip far below 0℃, dealing with the constant rain and zero sunshine can really get to you. Especially when the winter is also packed with assignments, midterms, exams… It can be difficult to adjust to after growing up outside of Vancouver, so I thought I’d share some things I find helpful when dealing with rainy season.

For reference, this is the kind of winter I’m used to

Proper Rain Gear
This cannot be stressed enough. A good pair of waterproof boots or shoes and a rain jacket go a long way. An umbrella might be nice, however, it can get pretty windy on campus. I have struggled with too many umbrellas and after their ultimate destruction, I decided to stick with the rain coat. If you can find a waterproof / water resistant backpack, that can be quite helpful as well. Otherwise, some people buy waterproof backpack covers to keep their stuff dry.

Warm Drinks
In the hot summers, it can be uncomfortable to try to enjoy warm beverages. Personally, I’m a hot drink person. Coffee, tee, hot chocolate, apple cider… I just love to curl up in some blankets and enjoy something toasty. This is something the winter is awesome for! Appreciate that you have the time to aesthetically sit with your tee and stare out the rain-streaked window.

Explore Indoor Attractions
In the summer, there’s plenty of outdoor activities to enjoy. So, use the time in the winter to enjoy some of the indoor ones! From museums both on and off campus, galleries and more, I think some of Vancouver’s attractions are often overlooked.

Still Dress Warm…
Don’t be fooled. Even though temperatures may read above 0℃, I find it feels colder. I’m used to feeling some -30℃ temperatures (poor high school Emily waiting for the bus in her school uniform kilt), so I tend to dress pretty relaxed (long sleeve, light coat). But man, it really feels so much colder. I learned pretty quickly to ditch my “Vancouver isn’t cold” pride and start dressing warmer than I thought was necessary.

Appreciate the Rain
Isn’t it kinda cool that water just like… falls from the sky? Spend time enjoying the rain. It’s still important to get outside and get some fresh air, so gear up, step outside, and have fun splashing through the puddles.

Give yourself breaks!
When the weather isn’t nice, it’s easy to just spend all day inside studying. Going for a walk to give yourself a break doesn’t sound like a nice option anymore, so some people find themselves stuck studying all day. Don’t get stuck. Even if you don’t want to go for a walk in the rain (although I think rain walks are underrated), you can still take breaks by watching an episode of a show, eating a snack while not staring at your laptop, or something else indoors.

So, there you have it. An Ontarian’s take and tips on Vancouver winters. Again, I advise you to not underestimate the rainy season, and the impact it can have on your mental health. But for now, enjoy the summer while it’s here!

Feeling lost in your degree?

In the first few years of my degree, I felt a little lost. It seemed that all of my peers had their whole engineering careers planned out – what company they wanted to work for, what research area they were interested in for grad school… and I’m just here because I like problem solving and things that move.

That’s totally okay! Some people come into engineering with a specific path, and others come to explore what engineering has to offer. You’re not alone if you don’t know exactly what you want to do after your degree. Know that people’s plans change too. In first year, I had friends who were very interested in a specific field, but after second year they were interested in something completely different.

I find there’s a lot of people who even question their decision to go into MECH or engineering in general. It can be easy to get this idea in your head of “this is what a Mechanical Engineer should do” and “this is what a Mechanical Engineer should be,” but that doesn’t exist. Mechanical engineering especially is very broad, and involves so many industries. You develop strong skills throughout your degree, including problem solving and determination. These are highly transferable skills, meaning its also possible to branch out after your degree.

If you’re looking to find a more specific direction in your degree, here’s what I can recommend:

Co-op: gaining work experience in industries you might be interested in is very valuable whether you end up liking the industry or not. If you’re really not sure where to go, it can be beneficial to do shorter co-op terms, and try out as many different career paths as possible.
Electives: take a good look at the elective courses offered at UBC, and take ones you think might be of interest to you. This will help you develop skills in an area of interest, and can also give you a better idea of specific fields you can pursue with that knowledge.
Talk to profs: ask any of your profs if they have a few minutes to talk about their field. They can give you insight into research prospects and often industry as well.
Informational interviews: I haven’t done this myself, but I’ve had friends who perform informational interviews with people in industry. If you’re on co-op, that is a good opportunity to ask to speak with other people in the company in different positions. I recommend looking for connections through family and friends as well, and potentially and industry partners you have through design teams and extracurriculars.

In general, I think taking the time to explore different fields in mechanical engineering can help you make the most of your time at UBC. If you don’t know what you want to do after school, don’t panic! There are many people who don’t know as well, and many people have come before you and figured it out 🙂

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!

Summer on campus

So, you’re spending your summer on campus. What goes on here? What can I do to keep myself busy? Well, I might have a few ideas.

Work Learn

If you don’t know what a Work Learn position is, they’re part-time paid positions offered through UBC in both the winter and summer terms. For the summer, Work Learn positions are typically posted around March. Depending on the position, they can be pretty competitive, so it’s best to apply early! You can work a maximum of 20 hours/week in a Work Learn during the summer, which puts you to a total of 300 hours. There are many different positions available, from research, to office and library work, to working with MECH Student Services (yay!).

Undergraduate Research

If you’re interested in a specific field, or think you might be interested in research, then why not reach out to a prof and try to snag a research position? Undergraduate research positions can come in many different forms. There are full-time, paid positions that are sometimes posted through co-op, but full-time opportunities can also be accessed through grants like NSERC. In my case, I’m doing some part-time unpaid casual work for a prof, which will hopefully lead to a publication. If you’re interested, I recommend reaching out to a professor whose research focus appeals to you, and simply ask if they are interested in taking on a student over the summer. You can also take a look here, for more undergrad research opportunities.

Personal Projects

Who doesn’t love making things? During the winter terms, students are typically much too busy to take on extra projects. Over the summer though, you have lots of time to explore your passions and build your resume. There is a wonderful previous post that includes some ideas for personal projects. If you already have some past projects, I can also recommend creating a projects portfolio. Building and coding your own website showcasing past work you’ve done is a useful thing to have to send to employers, and can also be put on your resume!

Design Teams

Joining a design team for the summer only might be difficult (although it doesn’t hurt to ask), however, if you’re already on a design team, there are often opportunities to get more involved. Most design team competitions happen over the summer, which means they are usually even more busy than during the school year. I know people who have spent full days in the shop with their team, and you typically gain a lot of hands-on experience. Often, you also get a chance to go to the competition, which can involve fun road trips and hotel stays.

Explore!

Have you spent the summer in Vancouver before? If not, this is your chance! Since the winter term is unfortunately dominated by cold and rain, the summer term is really the best chance to get outside and see what Vancouver has to offer. Go hiking on the north shore, climb and mountain bike in Squamish, or simply enjoy the UBC campus. With the roses coming out and flowers in bloom, the summer is a beautiful time to take relaxing walks and explore the campus and city itself.

This list just contains a few things that come to mind when thinking about the summer, but there really are endless possibilities! Even if you’re on co-op or not staying in Vancouver over the summer, some of my suggestions are still applicable, and I strongly encourage you to make the most out of your free time. That being said, I think it is also important to recognize that the summer is your primary time to relax and destress from the previous term. For some people, doing projects and research are their way to relax and destress. Others may benefit more from simply taking a break, and that’s okay too! In a demanding program like engineering, we need to know how to take a step back and prepare for the next year, in order to avoid burnout. While some people (including me) want to constantly be productive and push themselves, knowing what works best for you and following that is important.

Life on a non-competition design team

At UBC, we have a lot of design teams to choose from. I think people often hear about the big competition teams – Formula, Rocket, AeroDesign, etc, but not as much about the teams that don’t go to competitions. My design team, Sustaingineering, is one of the non-competition teams. So, what’s it like being on a team that doesn’t build things for competitions? What do we do instead? Let me tell you!

On Sustaingineering, there are many different sub-teams that all have their own project. These projects involve real-world problems centered around sustainability. On my team, the Wind Turbine team, we are tasked with designing a small-scale and low-cost wind turbine for a community in Nicaragua. We have a stakeholder, who is our main point of contact between us at UBC and the community in Nicaragua.

These projects are fun, because they have their own unique challenges. When looking at designing a sustainable turbine, we aren’t just looking to make a super-efficient turbine made of new cutting-edge materials. A big aspect of sustainability involves working with the community, and making a product that is mindful of their practices and knowledge. Sure, we could use super sustainable materials that we ship to Nicaragua from Canada. But what if it breaks? Just ship more? That’s not very sustainable. Instead, we want to look at materials we can source from the area, ones that locals are familiar with and can repair themselves. In the community we’re working with, they often use bamboo to build different structures, including houses. Bamboo itself is an environmentally sustainable material, so incorporating it into our turbine is a good option.

What are some of the benefits of a non-competition team?

On a non-competition team, we get to make our own deadlines, and therefore avoid the stress and pressure associated with competition dates. We can plan for less work occurring during exam season, so members don’t get overly stressed. This lack of hard deadlines also allows the team to be a bit more flexible, and explore other options. Say we start working on one design, but a member comes up with a different design that might work better. If we had a hard deadline, switching designs after starting with one might not be possible.

What are some of the drawbacks?

In this case, the benefits can also be drawbacks. With no set dates to finish a project, some non-competition teams face slow progress, and “analysis paralysis.” This is when you get stuck analyzing one or multiple designs, trying to optimize them as much as possible. My sub-team faced this during a semester, and solved it by getting in the workshop and starting to prototype whatever design we had. On non-competition teams, it’s really up to leaders within the team to motivate and drive them forward to produce results.

Overall, I am very happy with my experience on the design team. As someone who is interested in sustainability, it was great to gain experience solving real-world problems. Beyond that, I made many friends and connections, as we all bonded over our common passion for sustainability.

My co-op experience with the Vancouver Airport

For my second co-op position, I was offered a job at YVR. Now, I’m not one of those people who knows every type of plane, but come on, who doesn’t think planes are cool?

My role was in the Engineering Services department, which mainly deals with building and alteration permits. The department often gets involved with little side projects as well, which always kept things interesting! My primary task was reviewing HVAC and plumbing drawings, as well as doing site visits to ensure the construction was consistent with submitted drawings. Before working at YVR, I had zero experience with HVAC and plumbing. Because of this, I was a bit nervous to start. However, I quickly realized that the point of co-op is to learn, you’re not expected to be a professional in your field.

At YVR, I really appreciated that the staff wanted you to get as much out of your experience as possible. Even though I was mostly reviewing drawings, almost every week I would get a chance to be in the terminal building, airside, or in other cool places. Some of the highlights include:

A tour of the baggage system
Sitting airside and watching planes take off
Many visits to the secure side of the airport
Getting a tour of the Air Canada hangar (which included lots of pictures with the planes)
Going on a big construction site for a pump station replacement
A tour of the Ground Run-Up Enclosure

Many wires, tubes, small tanks, and more inside the compartment.

Underneath and inside of the plane… so much to look at!

I would love to say that through this co-op I discovered my passion for HVAC and plumbing, and ever since have been excited to learn more, but I’d be lying. I’ve since realized that my interests are more geared towards robotics and applications in the medical field, which is quite different than the work I was doing at the airport. So am I sad about spending my four months learning about systems that are not directly relevant to my future goals? No way! Any co-op and work experience you get is worth it, even if you end up hating that industry. Maybe I would’ve spent my entire degree thinking I wanted to work with HVAC systems, but that four month co-op saved me time by telling me no, HVAC is not my calling. No co-op term is a waste of time. In addition, I gained many transferable skills that are very beneficial when applying to future jobs. Scanning these plumbing drawings for small flaws requires being very detail oriented, and having to pick up so many new skills and programs in such a short time forced me to become a fast learner.

All in all, remember that no experience is bad experience. Despite not finding my passion in HVAC and plumbing, I very much enjoyed my co-op at YVR, and gained so many useful skills. Don’t feel discouraged if you are not enjoying the technical aspect of a work term as much as you thought you would. We are all just students trying to figure out what we want to do after our degrees, and sometimes that involves some trial and error.

My MECH experience

Hello! Emily here. I’m a third year MECH student, specializing in Mechatronics. I’m originally from a small town in South-western Ontario, which is actually where I did my first year of University, during the Covid-driven online year. You might be wondering, what was it like doing your entire first year online? Well, I actually found it alright. I was worried about making friends and finding a community within engineering while being alone in my bedroom, but apparently everyone else had that worry as well, which lead to countless group chats, zoom calls, and friends I am still close with in person.

With the transition to in-person classes in second year, it sort of felt like starting completely new again. This was my first time living on campus, first time living alone… but again, everyone was in the same boat. The MECH 2 group became quite close, and we all managed the transition together.

Well, at least the transition to third year must’ve been easy then, right? Not exactly. After spending all day everyday with my friends in MECH 2, I wasn’t used to not having the same classes as everyone. I was the only one in my friend group taking the Mechatronics stream, which meant we only had a few overlapping classes. In addition, third year is when people’s schedules start changing due to co-op. Some people will take a 12 or 16 month co-op right after second year, so they will be a year behind, until they catch up in forth year. However, these changes also gave me the opportunity to connect with people I didn’t get to know as well in MECH 2, and people with similar interests as myself.

Laptop, graham crackers, chocolate, and other miscellaneous materials.

Our capstone experiment in third year (part of Mech 305/6). Yes, we’re making s’mores.

I have done 2 four-month co-op terms so far. The first one I did back in Ontario, for a small company that designed and manufactured storage racks for car parts on the assembly line. Before working there, I honestly didn’t know that car part storage racks was an industry. My second co-op term was with Engineering Services at the Vancouver Airport, which was a really cool experience. Although my role was primarily reviewing HVAC and plumbing drawings, everyone there wanted you to make the most of your time there, which resulted in airside visits, tours of the secure side of the airport including the baggage system, and most excitingly, a hangar visit to get up close to some impressive planes.

During my third summer in University, I decided not to do a co-op term, but rather to develop other skills and gain different kinds of experience. In addition to my Work Learn with MECH Student Services, I am doing some statistics work with a professor I reached out to last term, and am also taking time to work on some personal projects. Since this is my first summer in Vancouver, I’m trying to take every opportunity to spend time climbing in Squamish, and will also need to take some time as I prepare to head out for my exchange next term in Germany.

Making Rocket Components – The Capstone Experience

The entire educational experience in MECH and APSC is geared toward preparing for your capstone project. It feels like from the early MECH days, right up to and including capstone are focused on preparing us to work alongside a client to try and create something of value. For my capstone, I worked with UBC Rocket to help design the main parachute release mechanism for their sounding rocket. The things we missed out on by working with a UBC-specific client were quite quickly offset by the uniqueness of the experience itself.

A common method of triggering systems with high reliability is using pyrotechnic charges. I had never worked with explosives before or performed analyses regarding them, but more about that later! Capstone is a full eight-month project where we work with an actual client to figure out the scope and deliverables for the project. Fortunately, capstone is divided up into smaller segments to ensure that they are more manageable.

The early parts of the project were probably one of the most important phases of the project – figuring out the scope. A common trend I’ve seen with more open-ended problems is scope creep, which is when things get added to your to-do list that you didn’t initially agree to. To try and avoid this from happening to our team as well, we tried to meet with the client as often as we could during the earlier stages and kept them updated on every progress the team made over the first few weeks. Fortunately, we were able to avoid it through complete transparency with the client on what we can and cannot do along with recognizing what skillsets exist within them and which ones do not.

Now that we could work on the fun part of the project, it had two main functions- releasing successfully when signalled and carrying the weight of the rocket once it had been released. But as we started figuring out what concept alternatives we had, there was that all-familiar feeling that we are already weeks behind. Preliminary prototype testing results were due in about a week or so and we weren’t close to having a good set of concept alternatives, let alone having completed the WDM to make a proof of concept prototype of our leading concept. Once again we had to make sure rapid prototyping was rapid. We went on a team scavenger hunt to gather scrap materials for the prototype.

Prototype version 1

It was probably while machining the prototype for the first time did it the seriousness of our analysis hit me. We had chosen a type of machine called a tender descender while engaged using a small pyrotechnic explosion, so basically our very rapid prototype had to be structurally sound enough to contain a small explosion as intended to ensure that no one gets hurt. It was a weird feeling because I hadn’t worked with anything before that could potentially affect someone’s safety and well-being if my calculations were not done properly. It is an important thing to realize the impact our work sometimes has and not only on ourselves but also those who would be interacting with it at the end of the day. Well the prototype did end up working, but during testing the pressure seal on our concept was not satisfactory so we ended up using bubblegum to seal the pressure chamber.

Prototype version 2

It would be somewhat ideal if the final concept that the client paid for didn’t use half-chewed bubblegum to work. So for the next few iterations, the design used two concentric cylinders to create the pressure chamber. Once we were confident the design was reliable and worked as intended, we began optimizing it for manufacturability, assembly and weight. We improved the ease of assembly by having symmetrical parts and reducing the number of components required; ease of manufacturability was also improved when we had symmetrical parts so multiple components could be made on the same setup. Weight was probably one of the harder things to reduce, since our concept was small to begin with, reducing a few grams would add up to a noticeable percentage. The most effective method of reducing weight was selecting the correct materials for each of the components; parts that did not need to be steel shouldn’t be steel was the basic idea and that itself helped reduce the overall weight by 40%.

Prototype version 3

Testing the prototypes was so much fun! Filling them with black powder and arming them with an electronic match definitely did give me the chills but by the 20th test having no incidents or misfires we started to have some confidence in our loading procedure. So we completed three types of tests – a no load release test, a full load hold test and a full load release test. The tests were performed in order of increasing risk so failure modes could be detected early on and addressed to potentially mitigate the risk of a high-severity test failing unexpectedly.

For our no-load release test, we were testing to quantify the reliability of the prototypes and understand the limits for the minimum amount of black powder required in this system. The full load hold test was intended to verify the load-bearing capacity of the concept, as during flight it is expected to take the full weight of the rocket. For this test, we hung 75 kgs from the 60g concept for over 20 minutes. Finally, for the full load release test we tested to see if the prototype could hold over 50kgs and release successfully when signalled. This test would be the most representative of what would be seen in an actual rocket in terms of the sequence of actions performed and we used this as a final validation test for our prototype.

Overall it was an enriching experience, and as I wrap up the final few documents for the course, it really does feel like the end of a marathon. There were a few long weeks, but seeing our prototype evolve over the weeks truly made it all worth it. Each step along the way was an uncomfortable realization that we could have done things better and getting them done so we didn’t have regrets while handing the project over to our client. From getting our project brief in September to handing over the final concept, it has been one memorable journey!