Two weekends ago, I had the honor of attending the Engineering Student Societies Council of Ontario Presidents’ Meeting along with my fellow delegates Allyson Francis and Sarah-Rose Lancaster, and VP External, Christina Lee. The ESSCO Presidents’ Meeting is an annual meeting that brings together executive members from each of the Engineering Societies within ESSCO for the purpose of discussing new ideas and initiatives from each of the member universities. This year’s conference was hosted by Laurentian University in Sudbury, the home of the Big Nickel. It involved a diverse range of workshops and guest speakers spread out over two days.
The first workshop I attended dealt with the topic of managing the Engineering Society’s image on campus, both among engineering students as well as among students from other faculties. We talked about common problems that engineering societies often have, such as the image of being a group dedicated to drinking, or being a clique of a few close friends. Ideas to overcome these issues were discussed, such as creating a broad portfolio of events that do not include drinking, and lowering the barrier for involvement in Engineering Society to encourage participation of new members. Another topic that was broached was the image of engineering students among the broader community. I feel that Waterloo does this quite well with our efforts in the community, specifically through the efforts of our talented outreach and charities directors and commissioner.
The next workshop I participated in was structured around informing delegates of the new accreditation process that PEO has outlined and that will be coming into effect shortly. PEO will no longer be specifying the required number of instructional hours in subjects and will be moving toward outcome based judgments. In particular they will be looking at 12 skills that graduates will be expected to possess: knowledge base for engineering, problem analysis, investigation, design, use of engineering tools, individual and team work, communication skills, professionalism, impact on society and environment, ethics and equity, economics and project management, and lifelong learning. Universities will also have the option of adding additional criteria specific to them if they desire. The discussion centered around which of the skills require more development, how to measure whether these skills are taught successfully, and how the skills can be worked into existing courses.
I learned that the skill that employers typically say is the most important, and also the least developed among new graduates, is communication. The general consensus among those present is that more could be done to improve how communication is taught in university, such as by adding questions to assignments that require students to explain their thought process in solving the problems.
Another session focused on what could be done in the realm of academic initiatives by the Engineering Society. Many ideas were shared and debated, such as a tutor training and matching programs, to ensure that tutors being hired were quality instructors, encouraging professors to ask their peers to review their instruction and provide feedback, and organizing skills workshops on campus in the interest of teaching students desirable skills like CAD or MATLAB.
I also attended a workshop on how to attract sponsorship for Engineering Society events. It detailed many tips, tricks, and techniques for contacting companies and getting them to support events financially. I felt this session was of particular value, as many of the skills were transferable to other situations where you would be soliciting help from an individual or group outside of EngSoc. I feel like these skills would be quite useful in convincing professors and administrators to help or support initiatives that the Engineering Society would like to run.
Finally, I had the opportunity to attend presentations by Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE). PEO is the licensing and regulatory body for professionals within Ontario, while OSPE focuses on advocating and lobbying on behalf of engineers. Both presentations talked about the respective roles that the organizations play and the benefits of a student membership to each. OSPE’s student membership must be purchased, but allows access to scholarships, networking sessions, workshops, and certain job postings. PEO’s student membership is free, and provides information about licensing, local events and presentations, as well as a reminder to start the licensing process after you graduate.
Overall I felt the conference was well worth the long drive to Sudbury, and that I came away from it with more knowledge of what other schools and EngSocs are up to. The weekend was jam packed with some excellent discussion on some very important topics, and I feel that I will be able to bring back much of this knowledge and leverage it to make the Waterloo Engineering Society even better.
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