Hello First Years! Welcome to the University of Waterloo! This new chapter is filled with new adventures, new people, a new environment, and dealing with classes either easy, manageable or super hard.

How AI can suck

First, though, we need to discuss the machine in the room. While AI is of great help in some cases… it’s unreliable (and there’s always the danger of academic violations!).

ChatGPT, Copilot and other AIs are known to make mistakes — very dumb ones even. In one of the first lectures of CHE180, our professor Marc Aucoin showed us how he tried to use ChatGPT to look up the density of a potato, and how it would keep believing the value it found was correct until he pointed out it was wrong. Though you might brush this off and call these minor errors one-offs, using these AIs over time will lead you to realize just how often they can be wrong and lead you down the wrong path, wasting valuable time.

Speaking of which, if you’re an frequent AI user, you’ve probably noticed how good it can be at hyping you up. This is especially troublesome if you’re wrong, since the AI will encourage you to pursue your idea and even solve the problem with your incorrect method, confirming your answer and boosting your confirmation bias. Nobody likes restarting a problem from scratch, but that could be the reality when an AI tricks you into thinking you’re right, only to find out you are wrong and still not knowing why.

Personally, in my 1A, I would sometimes rely on Copilot to check my answers, which would lead to one of 2 scenarios:

1. Copilot would get a different answer than I did because it did something wrong in its problem solving. I would spend 5-10 minutes doing the problem with it and correcting it along the way, ultimately proving I had the correct answer all along (especially frequent for multiple choice questions).
2. Copilot would get an answer, and I would point out that its solution is wrong (suggestion based on incorrect logic I used in my problem solving). It would then agree with me, making me believe that my logic was correct, and when I would check my work, my answer would be wrong, causing me to panic until a friend or professor would point out the mistake in my logic.

Resources on Campus

Yeah… I quickly decided to stop relying on Copilot. Luckily, there are more reliable academic resources on campus that I would recommend visiting — and will most likely be of equal or better help than AI.

1. WEEF TA Office

Located in E2 1786 and open between 8:30am and 6:30pm on weekdays, this office is where you’ll find First-Year Engineering Tutors (commonly called WEEF TAs). As the name implies, they are tutors offering help for almost all the courses taken by first-year Engineering students. If you ever have a question or need help on an assignment, I recommend this office as one of the first places to visit. Me personally, I didn’t go there too often since I found 1A classes manageable enough. But for my friends who did go almost all the time, it was a great way to get help on assignments, vent about classes being hard, and get advice from upper-year students. WEEF TAs know their stuff, so if you ever have a question, pop by their office and they should be able to answer it.

I don’t know if this still works, but WEEF TAs can apparently be reached live on Microsoft Teams, (details on https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/undergraduate-students/first-year). For those of you who don’t want to run around campus, this is a good alternative, non?

2. Professors and Graduate Teaching Assistants

When you’re stuck, and your classmates can’t help you, going to the people at the top is often the best approach to getting your questions well answered (especially when trying to understand very vague or unclear questions, of which would will encounter A LOT). Luckily, TAs and Professors have accessible office hours that you can just walk in (or book an appointment) to have your questions quickly answered. CHE102, for example, even had MULTIPLE Grad TAs, so there was always a TA available at a convenient time.

Even if you struggle to word your questions, or don’t have any, I encourage you to visit office hours to get to know your professors and their expectations; you may even get special tips and advice!

3. Your friends/classmates

Never underestimate your classmates! I believe everyone who gets into UW has to be smart, so if you don’t understand something in one of your classes, you can always count on other people to either understand that topic… or be just as lost as you. You’re never alone! If you want fast, tailored answers to your questions, asking your class or friends may be the way to go. In fact, if you have a question, I guarantee other people have the same question — and it won’t be long before someone either presents an answer from a WEEF TA, Grad TA or Professor, or figures it out and shares the strategy with everyone.

Furthermore, if you have a question, and are too shy to ask it in class, get the people who usually answer/ask questions in class to ask your question for you! Asking questions to your classmates may be one of the best ways to meet new people… or you have Marc Aucoin for CHE180, and he practically forces you to find a friend group by Week 2.

And there are many more resources like the Physics Tutorial Center in PHY 308, the Mates program, academic advisors and the Student Success Office (SSO), all of which you will learn about in GENE119. However, if you’re the type of person who dislikes walking all around campus to get help, or still believe staying at home and relying on AI is more effective, know that you can always stop by SLC, a Tims or a CnD on your way (if the line’s not too long). USE THAT MEAL PLAN MONEY!!!!

P-S: Another reward of wandering campus is finding me! (Though I’m not too hard to find; I should be in the WEEF TA office all day.)