Degree: Nanotechnology Engineering, BASc 2019
LinkedIn: Qianshu Wang
Email: qshu96@hotmail.com
What are you doing now and how does your engineering education from Waterloo help with your life today?
I very recently just got a new job as an application engineer with a local startup in Kitchener-Waterloo! I previously spent 3 years working in Newfoundland as an R&D engineer for a company there but recently quit that job and moved back home to family in Waterloo since living in NL didn't agree with me. I am excited for the new job and what it will bring!
I think my engineering education from UW really helped develop frameworks for how to tackle large complex problems and break them down. It also gave me a lot of practice in learning how to learn which has been an invaluable skill in all walks of life.
Why did you decide to be a part of REAC?
I have benefited a lot from mentorship and support from others in various programs and stages of my own personal and professional life. I believe it is really important to continue to pay things forward and support each other since it is our communities that elevate us. As new grads especially, it can be a really difficult time being thrown from the community of university that you've been enmeshed in for years into the stark adult world. I am also a very social person that gets energy from people and really enjoy coaching and mentorship as well. All of these things made REAC a natural choice for me.
What is a favourite piece of advice or quote that you would be interested in sharing?
I can't quite remember where I heard this from but a saying that has stuck with me is that you can't restore or reverse things back to how they were. But, what you can do is still fix them and move forward and make something better. I like this saying since it reminds me to focus on the future and that even if our problems don't become smaller, we can grow bigger around them.
What was your favourite place to eat at in Waterloo?
Gol's Lanzhou Noodle by far! Pretty cheap too relatively speaking!
What are your plans for the near future?
Buy a condo and get a cat! On top of that, I would like to travel more with friends after being cooped up due to the pandemic and living in Newfoundland.
Finally, do you have any fun and/or interesting media recommendations? Could be a book, song, movie, documentary, videogame, etc.
I have recently been reading “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology” by Chris Miller and it’s been very fascinating! It is a detailed account of the rise of the semiconductor industry, how deeply it is entwined with the military-industrial complex and defence industry, and how it has massively shaped our world with a key focus on the geopolitics surrounding chips. I think it is a good read as it helps engineers understand their work in the context of wider societal implications and that it doesn't just exist in a vacuum.