Mech Ambassadors

I can’t believe we’re nearing the end of the term already – I guess time flies when you’re having fun! Or really busy.

I’ve been both these past couple months, what with courses, working at MECH Student Services, working as a TA, and volunteering for my favourite groups, Thunderbots, Club MECH, and EngCite! I got so caught up in all the homework and events that this is my first blog post! So, I’ll start with an introduction:

Hello, my name is Khashina, I’m a 3 ½ year mechatronics student, and Two Truths and A Lie about me are:

• I’ve roasted marshmallows on an active volcano
• I can do a backflip from standing position
• I took a job working outside in -20°C weather just to see if I could

If you think you know which one of those is false, leave a comment or send me a message at ambassadors@mech.ubc.ca and I’ll let you know!

Alright. So the big theme in my life this week is that I have my very last midterm on Friday (!) and then I just have Final Projects and Final Exams! Often, classes will have projects as a large part of the work you do, which is really great because it distributes your grade (no 80% finals for us!) and you get to learn about the material in a more hands-on way. For example, for my manufacturing processes class, I have to choose an object and, through observation, think about how it was made (which might sound boring but did you know water-bottles are made by blowing up hot plastic into water-bottle shaped balloons?)

Well, back to work for me, and please leave a comment or send me an email if you have any questions about being a UBC Mech student or about this post!

Welcome back to another year at UBC! For all the new readers in the audience: Welcome to the UBC Mech Ambassadors Blog!

This blog was created for the purpose of showing students, who are interested in joining UBC Mechanical Engineering, the daily life of existing current MECH students. We will talk about courses you can expect to take as mechanical engineering student, ways to get involved and connected with the department, and events throughout the year. You will get complete transparency into all things MECH!

We were fortunate enough to receive great questions and feedback on our blog posts last year and would love to continue seeing questions and comments from you all! If you have a request for a blog topic or have a question in general, please feel free to email: ambassadors@mech.ubc.ca

So, bookmark this blog and join us as we continue our journey to become UBC Mechanical Engineers.

Until next time,

Ashley

We are approaching that time of year once again – midterms are wrapping up and final assignments and projects are rolling in. The last two weeks of school are an interesting time. You’re in that place where you’re not incredibly overwhelmed with work and studying, but you know that you should be preparing for finals that are coming up in two weeks, buuuuut, the sunshine, warm spring weather and dwindling motivation make that so difficult.

My final exams are fairly spread out throughout the two weeks and I finish up on April 25th (perks of only having 4 courses this semester). It’s also crazy to think that this will be my last summer before graduation – it feels like it has been a long time coming. For all you first year readers out there, enjoy your time in university. It goes by way faster than you’d think!

Anyway, just to update you guys on some of the things happening in the Mech Department…

Cheers,
Ashley

It’s coming to that time of year when first years need to decide what specialization they want to go into. On the last Wednesday of the semester, April 6th, the Mech department is hosting a First Year Networking Event. The event will run from 5:30pm-7:30pm at the Earth Sciences Building (2207 Main Mall). Here at Mech, we are giving the first years an opportunity to meet with our current students, alumni, and faculty members in a speed-networking setting. Students will be in groups of 4 and matched with a Mech representative. The rotations will last probably about 10 minutes which gives each student a decent amount of time to ask a question.

If you are thinking of attending, make sure you prepare a list of questions to ask our Mech representatives. Here are some to get you started:

There are so many more questions you can ask and it all depends on who you get to network with and speak to. My best suggestion is to bring an open and curious mind and listen. It’s a really cool feeling to be apart of a department that does so much outreach with first years and potential future Mech students. You don’t want to miss this event. It’ll be your key to getting the inside scoop on being a Mech student. If you want to attend, please make sure you RSVP as there are limited spots!

Click here to RSVP to the MECH First Year Networking Event

Hope to see you guys at some future events!

MECH is having a crazy month of networking events!

On Wednesday, there was a Mech Alumni Networking event at the EDC which included a tour of the Clean Energy Research Centre lead by our own faculty member, Pat Kirchen. There was a good mix of students and alumni from over the years and it seemed that the event was well received by all. Our department head, Sheldon Green, made an appearance and made his way through groups of students asking for feedback regarding the Mech curriculum. I feel really fortunate to be in a department that cares so much about student feedback and wants to improve the Mech student experience. On top of the scheduled feedback sessions the Mech department hosts each semester, Dr. Green still finds the time to attend events such as the networking event to ask for further feedback. At the end of the event, Dr. Green gave some closing remarks and revealed the winners of the door prize draw. The prizes were pretty awesome too – they included a MEL (Masters of Engineering Leadership) backpack, Moleskin notebook, padfolio, mechanical pencil and a UBC Engineering umbrella!

Later this month, on March 31st, Club MECH will be hosting the president of Vancouver’s Social Butterfly, Alice Zhou, at the ESC. The event is free and is open to ALL undergraduate engineering students. It’ll be a two-hour interactive presentation and workshop where students can learn: how to prepare before a networking event, who to approach at a networking event, how to effectively approach someone at an event, elevator pitches and business card fundamentals. It should be a really interesting and we hope students will learn alot from it. Also, there will be beverages and food provided (which is always a plus).

Finally, our department is hosting a First Year MECH Networking Event to help all you first years decide if MECH is the department you want to apply to or not! Stay posted for details early next week….

Ashley

So nothing much is actually going on this week besides the awesome feedback session that Mech put on today. This is a great opportunity to give the department some feedback on how the term is going and what changes would make it better. This is really cool because it shows that Mech cares about how classes are being run and that they want their students to have the best experience possible. We discussed a lot of issues and the Mech department assured us that our concerns will be addressed. Issues can range from professor complaints to material being too difficult to follow. This session not only gives the students the satisfaction of being heard but makes the education process much better. All voiced concerns are looked into and addressed accordingly. I am happy to be in a faculty that constantly tries to make itself better.

Hey guys! These last two weeks have been crazy – especially with finalizing the details of an awesome trip that my friends and I organized through ASME.

So, this past Saturday, ASME UBC took 40 people down to Mulkiteo, Washington and Everett, Washington to visit MTM Robotics and the Boeing Assembly Plant, respectively. Of the 40 people, there was a great mix of undergraduate mechanical students, some materials engineering students, and a bunch of first years! On top of that, we also had the Board of Executives representative from the ASME BC Chapter join us aswell. It was really fantastic to see how the event reached more than just mechanical students.

The day started at 7:30am on Saturday, March 5th. All of the students met us at the EDC atrium to sign in and find their spot on the charter bus. As 8:00am rolled around, we were on our way towards the US border. We were fortunate enough to have a beautiful, sunny day for our trip. Once we got to the border, we were greeted by a super friendly border guard who directed our group towards the other less-friendly-looking border guards. Once we all made it across the border, we all got back on the bus and we were on our way to MTM Robotics (formerly known as Mobile Tool Management/MTM).

For those of you who didn’t catch my last post, MTM Robotics is a supplier of robotics and system software that aids aerospace manufacturing. Some of their big clients include Boeing and AirBus. One of the cool robots we got to see is called the Mini Flextrack. It’s a robot that travels along vacuum rails (Venturi effect) which are positioned onto the fuselage of an aircraft. This allows the robots to drill holes and insert fasteners autonomously. These robots replace the traditional labourers that would otherwise have to manually locate the hole, drill and insert the fasteners themselves. Having this automation allows for a quicker manufacturing/assembly time for big companies like Boeing and AirBus to keep up with the demand for airplanes. Click here to see the Mini Flextrack

At MTM Robotics, we were greeted by Eric, the Senior Systems Engineer and also a UBC Mech alumnus! He gave our students an incredibly comprehensive tour of the MTM facilities. I visited MTM last spring, and it was amazing to see how much they had expanded and grown within the last year. Last year, they had a large chunk of their basement workshop devoted to material storage and now, they have converted it into a full work-space/test station for their outgoing robots. They are also discussing potential expansion into a larger facility within the next year! There were some very thoughtful and enthusiastic questions from the students and Eric answered all of them with great detail.

After MTM, our group stopped at a nearby strip-mall area and grabbed lunch before heading off to the Boeing Everett Factory. When we arrived, the students spent about 45 minutes walking through the Future of Flight Museum which included life-sized models of the Boeing 747 stabilizer, Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine and the G.E GEnx engine. There was also a cross-section cut out of one of the Boeing fuselage’s with MTM’s Mini Flextrack attached to the side! The tour of the actual factory floor was really neat too – unfortunately, no cameras were allowed. The first part of the tour focused on the Boeing 747 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Outside of the factory floor, we were fortunate enough to see one parked 787 Dreamlifter and another landing on the runway. The second part of the tour was on the other end of the plant and focused on the Boeing 777 and 777-x. The 777-x features all composite wings and new engines. Needless to say, the students were overwhelmed by the size of the Boeing factory and all of its rich history.

After Boeing, we began our trip home. One of our tour organizers bought waaaay too many granola bars to give out to the students as a pre-dinner snack. I’m talking like atleast a hundred granola bars. So, we gave those out and some juice boxes and water bottles. Shortly after, most of the students fell asleep on the long trek home. I spent a good 45 minutes talking to some first years about Mech and how it all works and encouraged them to apply to Mech as their specialization! Seriously, after a trip like this one, I don’t think it takes much convincing that Mech is the way to go!

All in all, it was a fantastic and super educational day. We hope to expand our trip into a 2-day trip next year to cover more potential companies. It would also be great to see if we could get a more technical tour from Boeing. Now, I’m back on that school grind with assignments and labs due, and a quiz coming up next week.

UBC Engineering students at MTM Robotics on a tour hosted by ASME UBC.