I’m pleased to say that my weekend began a day early the week of November 2-6. I missed some lectures and two tutorials, but it was well worth it.
I attended two conferences that weekend – one on Friday, and the other on Saturday. Friday’s was the Eastern Canada Student Energy Conference (ECSEC), and Saturday’s was the first-ever Waterloo Undergraduate Nanotechnology Conference (WUNC).
Being in chemical engineering, it’s probably unsurprising – probably even expected – that I would attend ECSEC. WUNC, though, I admit that I went to on a whim and out of pure fascination. I am positive that one day, nanotechnology will upturn and revolutionize our lives.
A common element of both conferences that I enjoyed were the “Think-a-Thons.” Essentially, we were put into groups of approximately 8 at ECSEC and 11 at WUNC to come up with some sort of conceptual solution to a particular problem that the real energy and nanotechnology industries hope to resolve. The problem statement provided at ECSEC was much more open-ended than the one presented to us at WUNC, for the latter conference’s organizers had already narrowed it down to a specific area of nanotechnology’s application. Did I mention that we had a time limit, too?
At ECSEC, we filmed a one-minute sales pitch, whereas at WUNC, we shared a six-minute, summarized presentation. From my perspective, the latter was more information-based and the former intended to be more persuasive – more along the lines of a sales pitch, if you will.
I have certainly learned a lot more about these two very different fields by attending both conferences. Regardless of the engineering discipline in which you’re majoring, here are some points that every Waterloo engineering student should consider taking to heart.
To paraphrase Dr. Adrien Côté, Senior Research Scientist and project manager at the Xerox Research Center of Canada, develop a “T-shaped skill set.” In other words, be a jack-of-all-trades who specializes in one or two areas. Think of your specializations as your core in the personal solar system of your life and the rest of your knowledge as your satellites. You never know when knowledge of those bits and pieces will come in handy, but you need that specialization or two to keep yourself grounded.
Kerry Margetts, General Manager at Shell Canada Ltd., mentioned the term “added value.” I had heard it uttered numerous times, but I hadn’t understood its full power – until Friday.
Canada is known for extracting natural resources and exporting them to other countries. What we as consumers do not realize is that many of the petrochemical by-products that we purchase are manufactured by foreign entities – with the (cheap) oil that we produce. Without further refining, Canada is not only not making a profit – we are losing money and potential jobs. Margetts was very passionate in selling the dream of a strong Canadian refinery industry, and I believe that this would be a wise direction towards which to steer the country. More domestic manufacturing would contribute to less dependence on foreign entities and create a an ample number of jobs. Needless to say, this could balance out the oil and gas rut.
At WUNC, the guest panelists emphasized the difference between “entrepreneurship” and the “entrepreneur spirit.” Undoubtedly, at Waterloo, most of us will be enraptured by the idea of running a start-up company. But it’s necessary for us to remember that not everybody is meant to be an entrepreneur – just as how we can’t all be Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Albert Einstein. That isn’t to say, though, that we cannot have the entrepreneur spirit, which they defined as having the courage to make mistakes (just not major ones!), challenging yourself, and asking for help when it’s required. After all, we are our very own products, so we ought to sell ourselves effectively.
The speakers of ECSEC and WUNC did just that with a high degree of effectiveness – they were all such eloquent storytellers. I know that engineering students will most likely never take another English course again, but communication is as important to our learning as calculus or physics is. In the future, there’s a decent chance that we won’t be working alongside strictly engineers. We need to be able to tailor our communication to a variety of different audiences. What’s a good idea if you cannot make it understandable to relevant parties who maintain the power in transforming your idea into action?
Finally, it’s important for us to realize that successful people, such as all the speakers, don’t purposefully seek success. Yet, they do everything to prepare for that one moment in time to seize a good opportunity and maximize their benefits from it. Obviously, everybody wants to be successful, but before you can become successful, define what success means to you. Keep that in the back of your mind, but don’t let it control your life. Work hard to achieve your personal pillar of success. Make mistakes along the way. Take a break when you need it. Don’t be afraid to dream big. Despite what bumps you may encounter along the way, savour all the tastes that life has to offer – the sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy! Enjoy the journey!
It doesn’t matter what we know; what matters is knowing that what you know is relatively insignificant compared to all that is out there for us to discover. That is the epitomizing beauty of attending conferences, so I’ll be sure to attend more of them in the future. Will you join me?
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