February 4, 2023 | The Globe and Mail
Using your networking skills can yield dividends at school and beyond
Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself as an introduction.
My name’s Olivia Mogielnicki. I’m from Oakville, Ontario, so in the GTA region. I went to U of T for Lassonde Mineral Engineering, did a PEY Co-op and graduated in 2019.
After graduating, I moved out to the West Coast, worked for Teck Resources for two years, then I did a bit of a career switch. Now [since Feb 2022] I have been working at Flexport as a data analyst.
The pandemic gave me some time to think and reprioritize. I realized I was really interested in the data and technology space, so I did quite a bit of networking to learn more about the industry and build relationships. I took advantage of LinkedIn and lined up as many interesting zoom conversations as I could. I actually connected to my current opportunity through another alumna from U of T.
Why did you choose Lassonde Mineral Engineering? And did your U of T Engineering degree give you the skills that you needed to succeed professionally?
Mineral Engineering aligned with what I wanted to do – travel all over and have the flexibility to work just about anywhere I wanted to. Plus, U of T Engineering is the top engineering program in Canada.
I had a lot of positive experiences in my time in mining. I got to work in the oil sands, in Manitoba, Northern Ontario and in British Columbia. I was able to travel and work all over Canada.
As for the education, yes, it definitely prepared me professionally for where I am now. Many of the core courses like linear algebra, calculus, probability and statistics are all very relevant to a data analytics role. There is also continuous self-education and skill building required in analytics, whether its applying new concepts in SQL and Python, or learning how to model data and break down analytical projects. People often say that an engineering degree teaches you how to learn, and it’s true. I think being able to take initiative and approach technical challenges are core skills that get refined throughout an engineering degree, and these apply to my work today.
You mentioned using your LinkedIn, networking abilities and your contacts to help find your new position. Would you say this is a good approach others can use too when looking for a new role?
Absolutely, it’s a great way to put yourself out there and make connections, especially if you are pivoting careers. Digital networking is wonderful because you can widen your search radius, and meet people living and working in opportunities that may seem out of reach. It’s inspiring to explore what’s possible and meet ambitious people along the way.
I really recommend going into it with a relationship-building focus, rather than a transactional ‘I’m trying to get a job” approach. Both you and the person you are meeting with will get more out of it. When I asked people who get tons of requests why they agreed to meet with me, they would tell me that showing genuine interest and an effort to research their team, product or company in the initial message is what makes you stand out. Its really important to personalize your message and think about how you can provide value to the person you want to speak with!
You mentioned U of T connections during your search. Can you elaborate?
My schoolmate – an alumna a year above me connected me to Flexport, where she also works in the Data Analytics org – and was kind enough to connect me to the hiring manager after she and I chatted and realized it was a good fit. Beyond that very valuable intro, she took the time to give me more general advice on the kinds of online courses, projects and technical skills I would need to invest in to be competitive in the tech/data analytics space.
People always say how you never know when your network is going to come into play and bring you a new opportunity – this was that exact situation. She did industrial engineering while I did mining engineering back in university, so I never could have imagined how this relationship would open doors down the road. Having, and maintaining, those connections are so important.
Now, with your hindsight, if you could go back to your younger self, or somebody else now starting first year, what advice you would give them?
I think just believing in yourself, that you can succeed if you set your mind to a goal, even when things are difficult. Having that grit is half the battle and you can really do anything, especially with an engineering degree as your base. First year is tough, but if you are a self-starter and can build relationships with your classmates, you will make it.
I also think it’s important for students to take an intentional step back from the stress and pressure of their course load, and explore what will make them happy when they enter the working world. What hours do you want to work? Where you want to live? What kind of projects do you want to work on? With who? What excites you? Exploring that might look like setting up your own coffee chats with interesting people in your industry (or in another), seeking out internships or simply reflecting on your values and goals. Understanding where you want to go and why will help you make decisions that put yourself first!
While at school, did you have any go-to, or secret, spot on campus? Would you share that with us?
Secret spot. Hmm. I have to think. The Second Cup, across the street from the Min building on College. That’s the spot that me and my friends would probably study at the most. Cookies. Coffee. And we always liked the coffee there better than Starbucks.
In my first year we all spent a lot of time studying in Robarts because, obviously, it’s open 24 hours. But, at some point we started looking for a little bit smaller, prettier libraries like Gerstein.
I also spent an obscene amount of time in the Min Lab – its a great study space. In fourth year when working collaboratively on Capstone that was the main spot.
Do you have a talent or skill, or a hobby, that’s unusual? Maybe something we wouldn’t otherwise know, except for asking here today?
When I was a kid, I danced competitively untill I was 15 or 16. I did jazz tap, ballet point, hip hop, the whole shebang.
So, then you’ve got some moves?
Ohh yes, I’ve got some moves.
By Phill Snel
January 27, 2023 | The Globe and Mail
January 26, 2023 |
CivMin’s Professor Sebastian Goodfellow (MIE MASc 1T0, CivE PhD 1T5) and Professor Marianne Hatzopoulou (CivE PhD 0T8), both CivMin alumni, are on teams which have each been awarded $100,000 for collaborative projects under the Data Sciences Institute (DSI) Catalyst Grant.
Goodfellow, along with a team of doctors at Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), has been awarded funding in the amount of $100,000 for the project Accelerating Machine Learning in Health Care: Solving the labelling bottleneck from the Data Sciences Institute (DSI), the Temerty Centre for AI Research and Education in Medicine (T-CAIREM). This recent funding follows the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announcement from 2022 for the transdisciplinary team. The team comprises U of T’s Prof. Goodfellow, along with SickKids doctors Mjaye Mazwi, Anica Bulic and Melissa McCradden.
Hatzopoulou along with Professor Élyse Caron-Beaudoin, a professor in environmental health in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough, has been awarded $100,000 from the Data Sciences Institute (DSI) for the project Something in the Air: Is There an Association Between Exposure to Unconventional Natural Gas Development (UNGD) and Exacerbations of Asthma in Northeastern British Columbia?
The goal of the DSI Catalyst Grant competition is to support Collaborative Research Teams focused on the development of new data science methodology, or the innovative use of data science to address questions of major societal importance.
January 25, 2023 | India Education Diary
We talked to the U of T Concrete Toboggan Team’s co-captains before they headed out for the annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) in Kelowna, B.C. this week. Hoping to follow up the success of the last in-person event in 2020 with another win, the team’s leaders share their insight and overall camaraderie the event brings to the multidisciplinary group of student engineers.
Could you introduce yourself?
N – My name is Nathaniel Rzepka. I’m in Civil Engineering in [fourth year], and I’m doing a minor in Environmental Engineering.
L – I’m Lindsey Wells. I’m also a [fourth year] in Chemical Engineering and double minoring in Bioengineering and Business.
How did you get involved with the concrete toboggan team?
N – In my first year, I walked around the Engineering Club’s fair, looking for one of the concrete teams, because I’m a Civil student, and I wanted to find something related to the program. I came across the toboggan team and signed up for their mailing list. At the first team meeting of the year, I got hooked on what I saw and have stuck with it ever since. I’ve been with the team since my first year – I was a general member for one year, then a concrete lead for my second year. In the third year, I took a year off from my PEY Co-op and now I’m back as co–captain.
L – I heard about toboggan during my first year at the club’s fair. I had the misconception that this built was made from all concrete. I’m in Chemical Engineering, so I thought it would not work for me. I didn’t join until my second year. When I heard from Nathan and some of my other friends as well – toboggan was really fun, so I got involved later in the year. We started doing carbon fibre layups since I’d had some experience with composites. I got hooked up with the team and went to a competition that year. I just loved the social aspect of the concrete toboggan team, as well as the technical side. We have a kind of unique environment in our team that you don’t necessarily get with other ones, which I really enjoy. The year, in my third year, I was a sponsorship lead and then last year, I was a superstructure lead. This year I’m back as a team co-captain.
What is the concrete toboggan team all about?
N- Toboggan is a multidisciplinary design team. We have students from almost every discipline, even in the lead and exact teams. Every year we build a toboggan which looks more like the bobsled you see at the Olympics. We build this thing from scratch entirely, and then we take it out to a competition called Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race, and we race it against other schools from across Canada and some from the US.
L – The only concrete part of the toboggan is the skis. So we have concrete skis, fully functioning steering and braking systems, and a superstructure that we typically make out of carbon fibre. It doesn’t look at all like a typical toboggan.
N – Yes, and it holds five riders, so it’s pretty big.
L – GNCTR is the largest student-run engineering competition in Canada. The competition itself is kind of unique in that it has a spiritual act as well as a technical design aspect. The technical design is designing, building and racing the toboggan. Then there’s a spirit side – an exhibition where people from the industry and other teams come, and we got a lot of networking through that. A technical exhibition is based on a toboggan theme for the year. We make costumes and design patches, which encourages communication between different engineering schools. You get to meet so many people – that’s the unique part of GMCR. I love meeting everyone from other teams and having personal interactions. Typical design teams are very competitive versus the feeling of camaraderie you get at GNCTR.
N – One of the mottos of the competition is “We are all best friends,” which I think really reflects the kind of atmosphere we strive for as an engineering community across Canada.
It’s actually unusual for a competition to have such a motto.
L – It’s really nice. In all the competitions, things can obviously go wrong. In 2020 we ended up winning the competition at the actual race – the king of the hill. It’s a one-on-one race against another school, and whoever goes faster stays, and another team is out. Things break a lot. That year at one point, we had too much force put on the chassis, so all of our skis fell off, so we had to fix it last minute. All these other teams are so helpful!
N – The most memorable thing from that whole scenario was when we got spare wood from another school. I don’t know any other competition where another school you compete against would give materials to help you get back on your feet.
So, the last competition was in 2020. Did anything change for you this year?
L – This year, we are back in person. For the past two years, we have been online. We still had it, and we’ve been designing everything; we just weren’t allowed to build stuff in person because of regulations.
N- This year, we’re back to building a physical toboggan, and we’re going to race in Kelowna, B.C.
How do your team meetings look like now, and how does it all work?
L – Since we have the spirit and the design sides, we separated our meetings to avoid wasting people’s time. As of now, for the design team, we have weekly meetings and work sessions on Sundays to get everyone together and work. We also have meetings on Monday nights, when it’s necessary to go over deadlines, deliverables and technical reports. On the spirit side, we have meetings and brainstorming sessions, and we have a lead on our team who takes care of it.
N – Concrete toboggan is an interesting design challenge. Many other student design teams here have real-world application projects, but we’re building a concrete toboggan that doesn’t exist in real life, other than this competition. It gives engineers an opportunity to imagine whatever they want and then design and see what comes to fruition. On top of that, we build the entire thing from the ground every year by ourselves. Effectively, it gives students a great opportunity to learn how to use different tools and work with different materials they probably wouldn’t get to work with otherwise. The team gets to work with concrete, steel, wood, and carbon fibre – all in one sitting.
L – To expand on that, I find concrete toboggan an interesting concept, as it also creates a more difficult design process compared to other projects. You can’t go online and see how to do this. You have to combine different ideas to make it work.
And you mentioned the workshops – you organized them yourself?
N – Yes. One thing we pride ourselves on is – our new members don’t need to come in knowing anything. They need an “I want to learn” mindset, and the team leads are open to teaching new members everything they need to know about using materials and how to use them safely.
L- We teach people how to safely use saws, drills, composites and modelling software when it works in with building process. Our workshops are not necessarily scheduled. We organize them when our design process needs that, so our members have a hands-on experience of learning something, instead of waiting weeks and months to apply their knowledge. We ask our general members if they are interested in a particular workshop or have a one-on-one with a lead and go through things. From the manufacturing side of things – carbon fibre is an extremely expensive resource, so most students in schools don’t get a chance to work with it, and a lot of people haven’t ever actually touched it or held it. So being able to have workshops and learn those hands-on skills the way you would in the industry is unique. As an engineer, even if you don’t necessarily want to build something, you need to understand the limitations of manufacturing. That is something you can get only if you are actually building something yourself.
How did you come up with the theme?
N – It’s a long process of kind of just tossing the ideas and just seeing what sticks. We try to stay away from things that have been done in the past, not only by ourselves but by other schools. One of the things that makes a great theme is recognizability. Back in 2020, we were Mail Toboggan, so all team members were wearing Canada Post-inspired costumes, and a lot of schools recognize that.
Did you face any difficulties during this year’s build?
N – We had a lot of timeline-related issues, but we overcame all these. Putting heads down and getting the work done, along with a lot of long nights in various build spaces doing work. The whole team came together and pushed through it as a collective.
L – We had some of these delays this year, because we haven’t had an in-person competition in two years. How to build a toboggan isn’t really something anyone knows, so we had some delays with passing on knowledge and learning from former members who had already graduated, and some knowledge was lost. As Nathan said, it took us coming together and being a very engaged team to overcome everything.
Do you have a lot of new members this year?
N – Yes, we have six brand-brand new members, but only seven of us have been to the competition in-person in 2020. We also have a young lead team this year. All the design leads are in their second year, which in comparison to 2020, is very different as I was the only second-year lead everyone else was either third or higher. So it brings a significant shift in the team dynamic and the way the team works because we are in different stages of our academic careers.
L – It’s fascinating as people came without a set idea of what concrete toboggan is supposed to be. It added a lot of value to the team. We are so excited to be captains this year and to see our new members experience all that work and what GNCTR is really all about.
What is happening this week?
L – We fly out right and early on Wednesday morning, get to Kelowna at 9:00 a.m. and then we have the first day of our competition. We check in at the hotel and start off with meeting other people and an opening ceremony in the evening. On Thursday, there is a Competitor Interaction Day where everybody on our team gets separated into different groups. So essentially, there are 24 team members on each team, and the event organizers arrange around 24 groups. Every team member joins a group with entirely new people to meet and interact with other participants. On Friday is our technical exhibit day where you go around and see everybody else’s designs. One gets a good introduction to everyone’s different themes. Saturday is the exciting day – race day on the big White Mountain in Kelowna.
N – It’s a tubing hill, so it’s much safer than a ski hill. It’s not as steep as a ski hill. There we will have a speed, braking, and slalom race and then a King of the Hill, which is a head-to-head drag race, and if you win, you move on to the next round and keep going until there’s one school left.
L – After that is a closing ceremony that night, and we head out home on Sunday.
Good luck!
January 24, 2023 | Nature
January 20, 2023 | Tech Refactored – podcast
U of T Engineering’s newest research centre will develop innovative ways to meet the urgent and growing need for infrastructure — without further exacerbating the climate crisis.
The Centre for the Sustainable Built Environment brings together seven researchers from across U of T, as well as a dozen companies in construction and related industries. The goal is to identify strategies that will lower the environmental footprint of new infrastructure across the board by reimagining how they are designed, where they are built and even what materials they are made of.
“In Canada, and around the world, we have a huge housing deficit, a huge infrastructure deficit — there’s a big social need to build much more than we have right now,” says Professor Shoshanna Saxe (CivMin), who holds the Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Infrastructure.
“At the same time, construction resource use accounts for up to a third of total global greenhouse gas emissions each year, a problem that is getting worse. It’s been estimated that if we continue current ways of construction, by 2050 the emissions due to new housing alone will cause us to blow past two degrees of global warming.
“If we want to avoid that, let alone reach net zero by 2050, we need to find ways to do more with less.”
Saxe and her collaborators plan to approach this complex challenge from several different angles. Some efficiencies can be found by looking at where new housing is built, as well as what it looks like.
“The average person living in a city consumes fewer resources than the average person living in a suburb, because in a city you have more people per kilometre of sewer, road or electrical infrastructure. There are big rewards for well-designed cities,” says Saxe.
“The shape and types of buildings we build is also important. For example, Toronto has a lot of long skinny apartments, where a lot of the space is in the hallway. If we design differently, we can better use that space to provide more housing, or avoid it all together and save materials, emissions and cost.”
Saxe and her team have also shown that large concrete basements account for a high proportion of the emissions due to construction; building more of the structure above ground could improve the environmental bottom line. Other potential solutions involve alternative building materials, for example, new types of concrete that are less carbon intensive than those in common use today.
In addition to Saxe, the new Centre includes six other professors from across U of T with a wide range of expertise, from carrying out life-cycle analysis of construction projects to defining national carbon budgets. They are:
- Professor Evan Bentz (CivMin)
- Professor Chris Essert (Law)
- Professor Elias Khalil (MIE)
- Professor Heather MacLean (CivMin)
- Professor Daman Panesar (CivMin)
- Professor Daniel Posen (CivMin)
The multidisciplinary team will address issues well beyond the traditional bounds of engineering. For example, the team plans to explore the legal frameworks that translate established housing rights into practical built spaces.
“It’s absurd to say that the right to housing means that everyone has to live in a space the size of a closet,” says Saxe. “But it’s also absurd to expect everyone to have their own 3,500-square-foot house. Can we find a middle ground where everyone can live in dignity, without consuming in a way that threatens the planet?”
In addition to these professors, the partnership includes 12 external companies in the construction sector: Colliers; the Cement Association of Canada; Chandos Construction; Mattamy Homes; Northcrest; Pomerleau; Purpose Building, Inc.; ZGF Architects; Arup; SvN Architects + Planners; Entuitive; and KPMB Architects.
By working closely with this core group, Saxe and her collaborators aim to speed up knowledge translation, ensuring that the insights gained through their research can be applied in industry.
“The conversations we have with our partners can inform their design and construction, as well as the conversations they then have with their clients, raising everyone’s level of knowledge and awareness,” she says.
“We hope that by giving people — policymakers, designers and builders — the tools they need to address these challenges of building more with less emissions, we can improve outcomes across the built environment and create a more sustainable future for everyone.”
This story originally published Engineering News