What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
The biggest highlight from my time at SFU has been getting to know the closely-knit research community through engineering science’s graduate school. I think we have some of the friendliest professors and grad students around, and I’ve built friendships with peers and seniors that will certainly last into the future.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
My career path has been a tumultuous one. I’m honestly making it up as I go, but the interdisciplinary nature of SFU’s programs has made navigating that path a lot easier. The opportunities I received through SFU, like working at Vancouver General Hospital as a biomedical engineer, have given me a well-rounded education that I feel has prepared me for whatever the future holds.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
Things will almost never go according to your plans, so don’t stress too much when they don’t. It’s easier and more fulfilling to just ride the wave. 

What are your current plans?
I’m blessed to say that I received admission and a full-ride scholarship to University College London’s PhD program in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. I’ll be moving to London, UK in September! I’m extremely excited for the move, and so grateful to my friends and colleagues at SFU who helped me get to this point.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
Starting the SFU Robot Soccer Club (SFURS) is the biggest highlight from my time at SFU. Hopefully, the team that I have built will continue to grow bigger, and they in turn can help students learn more advanced skills. I also hope that the team will represent SFU to compete in nthe international scene with the robots.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
With a well-established engineering program and well-known co-op program, SFU allowed me to work at two different and well-known companies, Microchip and Tesla Inc. It helped build my resume while gaining a lot of practical experience. It also greatly helped me with networking and being more prepared for my career.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
Join extracurricular activities, ideally one related your program and another that is not related to your program. For example, join a design team so that you can apply what you learned in your classes on a real engineering project. Then also pursue some sort of physical activity or hobby that you can enjoy and use as a getaway from your studies.

What are your current plans?
I have started my full-time position at AMD as Silicon Design Engineer. Even though, this position is not a biomedical engineering job, I am glad that I am able to be part of such a talented team of engineers. I will perhaps try to pursue a position at a biomedical engineering company or start my own biomedical company in the future.

Read more about Arvin Amini here >>

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
I started my graduate studies at SFU in September 2016 as a MASc student in the school of engineering science. Due to outstanding research performance during the first four semesters of my MASc studies, I got an excellent opportunity to transfer to the Ph.D. program directly without completing MASc. During my Ph.D. studies, I received quite a few scholarships and awards from SFU and other international institutions. 

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
During my Ph.D. studies, I worked on two different research projects. First, I proposed novel approaches to forecast residential power consumption, which is crucial for optimizing energy usage. In the second project, I proposed several algorithms to enhance the quality of 3D models generated from 3D scanners. Research outcomes of both projects have been published in top-tier international journals and conferences. Working on two different projects for a long time led me to develop time management skill that is very helpful for me to be more productive in different research threads in my current employment.    

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
As a Ph.D. graduate in engineering science, I strongly suggest first-year engineering students to learn how to think to solve given engineering problems rather than just learning how those problems have been solved before.   

What are your current plans?
I am currently working as a research scientist in SFU’s School of Engineering Science, where I continue my research in graph signal processing-based 3D point cloud sampling and video super-resolution in a joint project with York University.