Over the weekend of November 2nd to 4th, 10 engineering students on both A and B Engineering Societies participated in the annual Professional Engineers Ontario Student Conference (PEOSC). The PEOSC’s theme, Bridging the Gap: From Theory to Practice, provided sessions about professionalism, design thinking, contract law and ethics, and much more in an educational, yet entertaining environment. Key memorable quotes from the conference include “Dream Big” – Howard Brown, and “Engineers are not trained, they are educated” – Jeanette Chan. For most of us, it was our first student conference to attend and it was a memorable and valuable experience!
Ottawa is a beautiful city and we wish we got to see more of it, but we only had a weekend and many amazing scheduled sessions to learn from. Sessions were facilitated by speakers who were very knowledgeable and informative in their areas of expertise. There were a variety of talks relating to engineering politics, including: law in engineering, ethics, pursuing business degrees, and policy. Learning about engineering in politics brought on the realization that our voices can and should be heard regarding engineering licensing. Some of the more favourite sessions deviated from the politics of the engineering profession and focused on design thinking, biomechanics, and tsunami disaster relief – topics normally not discussed at Waterloo. As a major sponsor of the conference, Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) encouraged all engineering students to sign up as members on the PEO website. After hearing the benefits, we encourage everyone to do so as well!
Delegates at the conference were pursuing their undergraduate degrees and convening to get a jump-start on their future prospects as a licensed PEO Engineer. We were able to meet these fellow engineers who came from different universities in Ontario. We were able to share ideas and be inspired by what other students were accomplishing at their universities. By sharing rooms with these students, we were forced to get close, literally. We learned that engineers can’t dance, but can still engineer, and semi-formal attire means a full suit. On the side, we were able to connect with engineering professionals, developing our professional network in the process.
Some of the more humorous components of the conference included unique sassy music for the drive, one car going eastbound into Quebec on the drive back – if only that were the destination – and the encounter with two police officers who were concerned about a fully functioning light being “burnt out.” We were disappointed at first that Beaver Tails are not made from beavers until we devoured them.
All of us would encourage you to go to an engineering conference during your time in university at least once. It’s definitely something you have to try before you graduate; after all you are only an undergrad once!
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