What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
My favorite moment at SFU was during my final year, working on my capstone project. Weeks before our presentation, our team got together in the lab from morning and stayed up until midnight trying to get our prototype to work. In the end, we managed to get our system working and had a successful presentation. This project was a significant learning experience, in terms of building a technical product from scratch while keeping in mind the user and business needs.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
My experience at SFU gave me both theoretical knowledge and most importantly, practical knowledge through course projects and school clubs. Through the MSE program, I had the opportunity to complete 16 months of co-op that gave me industry experience and helped me identify my career interests. My co-op experience helped me improve my software engineering knowledge, which will be extremely useful as I enter full-time work after graduation.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
I would recommend students to explore as much as possible by researching and working on projects to identify their specific interests. I would recommend participating in student clubs that will help students get hands-on experience, improve their resume, increase their network, and make new friends. Finally, make sure to enjoy yourself as much as you can during your degree.

What are your current plans?
I’m currently travelling and visiting my family back home in India. I’m also currently interviewing for positions in software engineering and hope to get a software engineering job ideally in hardware applications. I’m hoping to study further and complete my master’s in robotics engineering a few years down the lane.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
The highlight of my degree was getting to go to class each day with a small group of people, all of whom became my close friends. Being in a graduating class of only three people is truly unique and is an experience I do not think many SFU students will ever have the pleasure being a part of.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
My time at SEE has thoroughly prepared me to work and in fact, I have just started a job in the industry. SFU's mandatory co-op terms have been invaluable in exposing me to the engineering workforce and they were what allowed me to get hired right out of school.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
My best advice to any student joining an engineering degree is to make friends as quick as you can. Nobody makes it through one of these programs alone and learning how to tackle difficult projects through teamwork is the key path to success.

What are your current plans?
Currently, I am working for BCIT as an Energy Specialist trying to reduce the institution's greenhouse gas emissions and overall energy usage. My long-term career goals focus on moving into more of a project management role in engineering. I hope to one day receive my MBA and play a role in furthering large-scale engineering projects that help make our world more sustainable.

Mackenzie is among the first to complete the undergraduate program from the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering. Read more here.

For his capstone project, he  and his team had the opportunity to collaborate with CityStudio Vancouver and the City of Vancouver to design a zero-emission retrofit for the Stanley Park Train. Read the full story here.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
I have many great memories of SFU's engineering science program. However, I loved being a student tutor the most. Being able to make a significant impact on someone’s academic career was very gratifying. Getting younger students excited about the possibilities that math, science and engineering can provide was my most rewarding experience at SFU.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
Having the opportunity to take two or more co-ops has shaped my future career. I was able to try out both industry and academia positions which enabled me to make an informed decision for my future. Further, I developed an understanding of the importance of testing my code as it was emphasized in both opportunities. 

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
In my first year, I wish I had signed up for more engineering clubs and societies. I was on the SFU Varsity Swim team throughout my five years, which generated memories and friends that I now cherish in my post-grad career. Clubs at SFU I would have loved to join would be the Robot-Soccer club and the SFU Rocketry club!

What are your current plans?
Post-graduation, I want to find a great work-life balance as I move forward. I have professional swimming opportunities ahead of me, and I want to combine them with the software development I love. The concrete plans are still in the works while I spend four months living in Vienna and travelling Europe.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
Some of my favourite memories at SFU were in the common rooms of student union groups. In my first years of school, I met many new friends and mentors through the Women in Computing Science common room. I also met many of the important people in my life through the CSSS common room.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
SFU’s focus on practical, hands-on experience in coursework and in the co-op program enabled me to gain the skills I needed to land internships and the work experience to get a head start in my career. This includes not only the technical skills but also soft skills like teamwork and leadership.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
Make time to get involved in clubs and attend events on campus. After two years of online school, I regret not having the opportunity to attend more school events on campus. It’s a great way to meet new people and make lifelong friends.

What are your current plans?
Following two internships I did during my time at SFU, I’m excited to be returning to Google full time as a software developer working on one of my favourite products. I’ll be moving to the San Francisco Bay Area after graduation!

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
The highlight of my degree was international co-op, working on research projects at two German universities through the DAAD RISE program. These experiences gave me the opportunity to explore exciting research, to meet great people and network internationally, and to travel around Europe. They also taught me valuable technical skills that I will take with me into my future career.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
My SFU experience has shaped my career interests, and my co-op internships have prepared me for pursuing these potential career paths. Through co-op I've been able to gain experience working in both industry and academic research, and in a variety of areas in computer science that interest me. These include cryptography, cybersecurity, compilers, computer networking and artificial intelligence.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
My advice is to establish good study habits early and to get involved. These are equally important and will help you enjoy university. Good study habits will enable you to manage your time/stress, and getting involved (whether through hackathons, clubs, events, etc.) will allow you to meet people, learn about your interests and make your degree a fun experience.

What are your current plans?
After graduation, I will be seeking a position as a software engineer or machine learning engineer in industry, potentially abroad. In the future, after working in industry for several years, I would also like to return to school to pursue a master's degree.

Read more about Jeremy here >>

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
My favourite moment from SFU was attending and presenting at conferences. I learned a lot by hearing about recent research and networking. I also felt really accomplished after I presented, and I think this was a great opportunity to develop soft skills.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
The biggest thing I learned is that nothing ever goes right the first time and plans change all the time. I think this is important to remember for my career because I still got to the end of my degree despite many setbacks. Therefore, I will make it in my career despite the many more setbacks to come.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
I think it is important to take breaks and turn off your notifications and do something you love. For me, talking with people in the lab often helped me think through problems and learn different perspectives. I also think that taking breaks to go skiing or take a hike really helped me calm down. I find when I’m relaxed, I subconsciously think of solutions to problems which also helps.

What are your current plans?
I will be working for Dongyue Chemical as a research scientist working in fuel cell development.

Sarah's research focused on analyzing the characterization and degradation of fuel cell membranes. Her goal was to characterize the membranes and look for links between this characterization and the degradation of the membrane in mechanical testing. The research results can be applied to future generations of fuel cell membranes to make more durable fuel cells.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
My highlight was learning in an environment with small class sizes and a wonderful staff. I got to know so many students in the program as well as professors and TAs with a much closer connection than with classrooms of 30 plus people. I wish everyone could study and learn with such a connected group of people like I did.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
My Capstone project encapsulated knowledge and skills spread over the 4 plus years I had attended SFU and had shown SFU's commitment to our success. The achievement won us an award and even convinced the City of Vancouver’s decision makers to approve funding for parts. It had shown that everything we learned during our time in the program had a purpose.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
Engineering is about teamwork and asking questions. At first, the classes had simple questions with straightforward answers, but it can get quite challenging near the end of the degree. Having peers that you can talk to and learn from is critical to being successful in this field. Teaching staff also want to help, so ask them questions, it's worth it.

What are your current plans?
I plan on transitioning from my current job in Software to an engineer-in-training position in 2023 to work towards my P.Eng, while also taking classes to further my education. I eventually plan on completing my MBA to balance business and engineering based on my job role preferences.

Thomas is among the first to complete the undergraduate program from the School of Sustainable Energy Engineering. Read more here.

For his capstone project, he and his team had the opportunity to collaborate with CityStudio Vancouver and the City of Vancouver to design a zero-emission retrofit for the Stanley Park Train. Read the full story here.

What was a highlight or favourite moemnt from your time at SFU?
My favorite moment from my time at SFU has to be the time I organized my first GOENG Girls workshop through SFU’s Women in Engineering club. The sustainability themed workshop for middle school girls involved building a small-scale electrical model of a wind-turbine using direct current motors. At the end of the workshop, one of the attendee’s dad asked me where he could purchase the workshop materials for his daughter so she can experiment building similar engineering models at home. Their enthusiasm made me feel like all the hard work I had put into the workshop had been rewarded.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
Other than the technical courses and the extra-curricular experiences, my capstone project played a big role in helping me enter my career today. These include soft-skills like being proactive and having good work ethics.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
My first advice for new students is to get out there and get involved. Courses and labs do a great job of providing you with all the technical knowledge. Extra-curriculars such as joining clubs, design teams and co-ops give you an outlet to apply and enhance that technical knowledge. My second advice is more of a note - that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed when you are starting your undergrad journey. Just remember to ask for help because there are a ton of resources, mentors and advisors to help you navigate.

What are your current plans?
After graduation, I will be starting a full-time role at MDA Space working as a Junior Mission Ops engineer at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Québec. In this role, I will be part of the Flight Support Team that monitors, analyzes and operates the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station (ISS). Once fully trained on ISS, my duties will also involve training astronauts on the robotic arm operations.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
My Capstone team developed a new technology for correcting adolescent spinal curvature. Our project won the top award at ICAMES 2022, an international competition for engineering students held in Istanbul, and was featured in the August 2022 FAS news. Capstone was an incredible opportunity to collaborate and it was extremely inspiring to speak passionately about our project's potential future impact.

Read more about her and her team's capstone project here >>

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
My volunteer experience in SFU biomedical engineering research labs, multiple technical co-ops at Microsoft, Samsung, and Stryker R&D, my capstone project, and my thesis on interpretable AI in medical imaging, greatly influenced my career direction. These opportunities inspired me to apply the AI and software/electronics engineering skills I learned throughout my degree to my passion for biomedical and neuroscience applications.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
I would encourage new students to get involved in university clubs of interest and be open to trying new experiences. Enter competitions and hackathons because they are an incredible opportunity to gain valuable technical skills and friendships. Ask professors if you can volunteer in their research labs. Use co-ops to explore your career interests and make professional connections for post-graduation.

What are your current plans?
Following two internships at Microsoft I am honoured to be returning to Microsoft’s head office in Seattle as a Software Engineer in the Azure division. In the future, I hope to be able to develop into a project management role, specializing in AI for medical and neuroscience applications, and would also be excited to pursue higher education in these areas.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
I am proud to have worked with multidisciplinary teams on six high-quality publications. Seeing the dedication, passion and rigour everyone puts into their projects inspired me to continually improve the quality of my works. I was also fortunate enough to have been a part of SFU’s Computing Science Graduate Student Association, students’ voices and the Teaching Support Staff Union. The help and generosity of the community empowered me to pass on the kindness, shining a light on my time here - pun intended.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
Not only was I given the opportunity to take deep dives into specific computational topics, the SFU community has also cultivated my deep respect for understanding different perspectives on the same problem. These experiences taught me to think holistically about problems as systems. Taking these lessons forward, I aim to develop effective solutions that have positive impacts on the greater community.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
Be confident and stay curious. Less generically, it is about the journey, but make sure to always have small concrete goal in mind before doing anything. If things change along the way, that is okay, but remember to celebrate the small achievements along the way. For example, a goal could be to finish a certain experiment in the next month.

What are your current plans?
I started working as a researcher at a Paris-based start-up called Metafora Biosystems in June 2022. I am excited to work with an ambitious team to develop high-quality and user-friendly software for computational biology. We’ll see where the world takes us!

Alice’s research focused on computational biology for single-cell cytometry data sets. More specifically, she works with dense lattice structures to help decipher the added layer of complexity introduced by data sets containing sub-object or cell-level information.

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
In 2017, I joined Menrva Research Group under Dr. Carlo Menon. Having his support helped me stay focused on our goal through result-oriented tasks. I was also part of a highly motivated research team. They taught me new skills that greatly helped with my standalone and collaborative projects. Working with human participants to interact with the Kuka robot via force myography biosignals was my grad-life highlight. On few occasions, we had visitors from the industry and showcased our works. These were proud moments for us!

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
During my grad studies, we worked on projects that were later published in IEEE conferences. I also joined the Engineering Science Graduate Association, and became part of the student body to address student challenges and issues. These opportunities helped me grow my network within the faculty and beyond, and represent our graduate students. Having my research published in higher quality journals while maintaining a strong CGPA also helped me successfully receive external awards. Workshops, organized by SFU Library, on Python in Github, Matlab deep learning approaches, NSERC scholarship application process were helpful. The 3-day Instructional Skills Workshop at SFU was also very useful in understanding student-oriented teaching approaches.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
Be focused on your work, earn good grades, and attend job fairs or workshops as much as you can. These helped me improve my knowledge and increase my network. Also, learn about the national, international and external awards. In case you need it, do not hesitate to communicate with our SFU grad office; the people are very helpful.

What are your current plans?
While I was waiting for my defense, I applied for teaching positions and appeared in interviews. I was offered faculty positions as soon I completed my degree. Now, I have joined full-time as an Assistant Professor, MS in Cybersecurity Program at the New York Institute of Technology, Vancouver campus starting this fall 2022 term.

Umme’s research focus was to investigate recognition of human intentions of interactions with a robot by estimating applied forces in dynamic motion using force myography (FMG), a non-invasive wearable technology that can detect underlying changes when muscles contract. The learnings from this research can be used to detect human intentions of movements during interactions with a robot for object handling and transportation.