The Faculty of Engineering Graduate Research Symposium has laid out a series of workshops that promise to deliver valuable skills to engineering students.
(Edmonton) Faculty of Engineering Graduate Research Symposium launches a series of workshops targeting many of the graduate life challenges: finding a job, mastering intellectual property law, improving your Matlab skills, and becoming your own boss-just to name a few.
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"The workshops address a wide variety of issues applicable to graduate students," says Aïda, who leads the symposium's organising committee. "They can attend free professional development workshops they would otherwise have to pay for."
Valevicius, a second-year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, says the workshops running Wednesday, June 22, are open to all graduate students in the Faculty and will be followed by a networking mixer with industry reps, practicing engineers, as well as Faculty professors and alumni. To attend the event, fill out the registration form.
The first session, facilitated by Stacey Sayler from the Faculty's Engineering Employment Centre, is customized for graduate students seeking employment in a tough economy. Although some job search techniques are universal for all engineering students, graduates with master's or PhD degrees could get an edge by tailoring their job search and networking skills to leverage the extra skills they acquired in grad school.
"As a graduate student, you are more specialized," says Quinn Barber, second-year master's student in electrical and computer engineering and a VP logistics of the Symposium.
The second seminar, facilitated by two practicing lawyers Francisco Marquez-Stricker and Eugene Gierczak from Miller Thomson LLP, covers the fundamentals of intellectual property law applicable to all engineers interested in patenting and marketing their inventions.
The third session is dedicated to the software all engineers use at least once in their lifetime: Matlab and Paraview. "During this workshop, students can get familiar with the basics of the software, data analysis and visualization features to be more specific," said Amirhossein Mahdavi, second-year PhD student in mechanical engineering and VP Sponsorship and VP Finance for the Symposium.
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Jon Johansson from Videre Analytics will walk the workshop participants through a series of visualization techniques exercises. Participants are encouraged to bring their laptops with the required software installed to get the most out of the session.
Running one's own engineering firm is a dream and a career goal for many graduate students and getting an intro to launching a business is a must.
"Being an entrepreneur is a different feeling. It is more lucrative, but also risky. It is a great option for a lot of people who are not geared towards research," said Barber.
A speaker from TEC Edmonton, will explain what being your own boss really entails, and outline some of the necessary steps to launching a firm, coupled with first-hand tips from an Edmonton entrepreneur.
The faculty's graduate community is has a rich ethnic and cultural diversity-more than 50 per cent of all graduate students are international-the closing workshop will be of particular interest. Non-Canadian students, many of whom are considering staying in Canada beyond the school program will be interested in the Pathway to Permanent Residency session presented by Manprit Aujla-Grewal, a certified immigration consultant. The session will navigate students through multiple government programs allowing to obtain a permanent residency.