The unbeatable value of real-world experience
Michael is pictured above in the Midnight Sun solar-powered car
The connections between in-classroom, extracurriculars and co-op are building a truly well-rounded engineering foundation.
It wasn’t a question of whether Nanotechnology Engineering (NE) student Michael would end up at Waterloo Engineering, only which program within the faculty he would be in.
Michael had been sold on engineering as his career path from his childhood days of playing Lego, to the point where he said he wanted to be an engineer during a career presentation in elementary school. After learning about NE and the broad range of applications offered for his future, he was sold on the program.
Joining Waterloo Engineering was the best choice that I could have made in terms of propelling my career forward. The Nanotechnology Engineering program was a fantastic choice for me to build my foundation of a broad knowledge of engineering with access to facilities and resources that are second to none.
The co-op advantage
Michael’s goal as an engineer is to understand the various aspects of engineering to be able to understand products work wholistically and try different fields of engineering. That made the decision to enroll at Waterloo Engineering a “no-brainer” for Michael because he appreciated the value that graduating from an undergraduate program with six terms of work experience would give him. Michael says each of his co-op terms has exposed him to different facets of engineering and they have all built off one another.
“It is invaluable to graduate with two years of work experience and co-op is formed in a way which helps you discover who you are in terms of in engineering and being an engineer.” says Michael.
He also appreciates that the NE stream allows two eight-month co-op terms which has given employers the time and confidence to assign more substantial projects.
After his 2B term, Michael worked as an Opto-Mechanical Engineering Intern at Waterloo Engineering alumni-founded Vena Medical for an eight-month co-op. He was tasked with a project completing optical testing to help the company obtain FDA approval on one of the company’s newest medical devices.
To complete this task, Michael needed to understand how the medical device worked using nano-based (quantum mechanics, optics, biology) coursework to find and understand the testing criteria from the FDA. Afterwards, he would physically make something that could measure the criteria using mechanical engineering skills he developed working on a design team for Waterloo’s Midnight Sun solar-powered car.
“The camera I was working with was 700 microns thick, with individual optical fibers close to the size of a human hair,” says Michael. “The knowledge I gained from this experience directly tied into NE courses I took when I got back to school for 3rd year, such as Photonic Materials and Devices and Microfabrication & Thin-Film Technology.”
Now working at Tesla in California as a Manufacturing Engineering Intern, Michael is on a team developing pilot lines for drive units of Tesla vehicles. Tesla is set to invest millions of dollars to have a production line of robots and presses that assemble drive units. Michael’s team designs proof of concept for the robots and presses, to identify potential problems and help drive the final implementation of the production line.
“The experience I obtained from my design team related heavily to work I’m doing currently at Tesla,” states Michael. “What is nice to see is that even in an automotive co-op, my knowledge gained from the NE program has really helped me understand the drive unit from an electrical standpoint, increasing the effectiveness in my designs.”
The class and campus connection
Michael says the connections between how his in-class learning has transferred to his co-op work terms and vice versa are a true “symbiotic relationship.”
“There are so many things I’ve learned in class that will come up in co-op,” he says. “And sometimes it’s things I’ve seen in co-op that will make what I'm learning in class that much easier."
Michael also credits the ability to participate in extracurriculars like joining the design team for Waterloo’s Midnight Sun solar-powered car with opening opportunities for outside-the-classroom learning and connections.
“Midnight Sun was probably the best decision that I've made at Waterloo because it has been the catapult to getting the co-op jobs I have,” he says. “There isn’t a single co-op interview I’ve had where I haven’t talked about what I do on the Midnight Sun team.”
Michael needed support as he joined the team in his first year. He credits his NE professors for aiding him with Midnight Sun. “My professors really helped me at the time by going in-depth into material science application and calculations I was doing for the team.” says Michael. “I’ve been happy with the NE professors; they are willing to assist their students and show that they care about us.”
After 3 years on team and competing in the American Solar Challenge this past July, he retired as Midnight Sun’s Captain, Mechanical Project Manager, Aerodynamics Lead, Composites Lead, and Driver. This experience has allowed him to broaden his engineering knowledge and helped Michael towards his goal of understanding multiple fields in industry.
"Engineering at Waterloo gives us the perfect opportunity to explore who we are as an engineer and as a professional, as well as gives us free resources in the classroom and on design teams and for extracurriculars to discover what type of engineer and what type of person we want to be."