I’m a 4th year Electrical Engineering (computing) / Arts (music) double major at the University of Sydney (USyd), in Australia, who has come to UBC for a term-long exchange program. Most of the time when I tell someone what I study, they respond with something like “That’s an unusual / interesting combination!” and then I explain that actually, the two fields complement each other quite well. To give you an idea of how, here is a demonstration video of a self-appointed project that I completed earlier in the year with one of my peers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdf-Vvf11Xo
I’m not sure how it works at UBC but at USyd, each degree has core units and elective units that you are required to fulfil. As I have nearly completed all the necessary units to receive my music major, I have several free arts units left to do and so I elected to do the following subjects at UBC:
- FNIS100 (Indigenous Foundations)
- GRSJ102 (Decolonizing and Feminist Perspectives from Local to Global)
- PHIL345A (Environmental Ethics)
- MUSC323 (History of Popular Music)
Given the nature of my degree, I currently have little / no academic history in studying these kinds of subjects in a formal setting. However, whenever given the opportunity, I have attempted to incorporate my interest in environmental ethics into engineering projects and social justice (for lack of better term of the same breadth) into music projects. Outside of the context of university, I produce music as a hobby and have dreams of it becoming a stable income stream for me one day. A project that me and a friend started together essentially consolidates all the music made by people we know into one virtual space: https://trictumsound.bandcamp.com/
This particular project has lost pace in recent years but I still have big plans that I intend to bring to fruition. Moreover, as I learn more and become more politically engaged, I’ve become more motivated to incorporate these politics into my music / art. I am optimistic that my studies at UBC will help me achieve this goal, as well as inform how I can direct my aspirations regarding a career in engineering towards an ultimately positive cause.