Graduate Student Symposium Showcases Innovation and Future Engineering Leaders

Graduate Student Symposium Showcases Innovation and Future Engineering Leaders

On November 26, 2025, the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering (MSE), in partnership with the IEEE Student Branch, MSE Graduate Student Association and MSE Alumni Club, proudly hosted a dynamic and inspiring Graduate Student Symposium at the SFU Surrey Campus.  

The symposium was created with the goal of strengthening collaboration amongst graduate students. 

“MSE is home to more than 100 graduate students working in various research areas such as robotics, agritech, electronics, energy, design and manufacturing,” says professor and graduate program chair Gary Wang. “A symposium encourages the cross-pollination of original ideas, allows students to network and helps them get to know each other to enrich their social life at school.” 

This year marked the inaugural event, which aimed to highlight cutting-edge research in the MSE program and celebrate the future of the engineering industry. The symposium included:

• Keynote Presentation – SFU Computing Science professor Siqi Zhou delivered a captivating talk on “Bridging Machine Learning and Control for Safe and Intelligent Robot Autonomy,” demonstrating how advanced ML and control methods are enabling the next generation of intelligent autonomous systems.
• 32 Graduate Research Presentations – Showcasing diverse research spanning energy, agritech, robotics, electronics, AI, system design, and advanced manufacturing.
• Industry Panel Discussion – “How AI Is Changing the Engineering Job Market” provided valuable insights from technology leaders and industry experts on emerging career pathways in the era of AI.

With over 70 participants from academia, industry, and the broader community, the symposium fostered meaningful dialogue, knowledge exchange, and new connections. 

MSE continues to lead in advancing engineering innovation—bridging the digital and physical worlds to drive progress in intelligent systems, autonomous technologies and smart manufacturing. The school plans to host this symposium annually and hopes to expand future collaborations with other schools within the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

Congratulations to the Research Presentation Award Winners:

Sadra Bahrami

• Title: Structural Design Modification to Enhance Shock Protection in a High-Performance MEMS Accelerometer

Hasti Mohammadi 

•  Title: AI-Based Soil Nutrient Mapping with Drone-based Soil Scanning 

Bipin Mishra 

• Title: Matrix Converter control for Hybrid Propulsion System 

A heartfelt thank-you to all presenters, panelists, volunteers, and attendees for contributing to the success of this year’s symposium.