CASI UAlberta members Aleeza Batool, Karina Sapelnikova, Andre Ulliac, Kirtan Dhunnoo.
(Edmonton) Aerospace industry professionals are coming to the University of Alberta Oct. 4 to talk to engineering students about their future careers in the Alberta aerospace industry.
"Alberta has a pretty diverse and growing aerospace industry," said Kirtan Dhunnoo, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student who is co-ordinating this year's Aero Day.
In the afternoon of Oct. 4, three industry professionals will talk to students about growing their aerospace careers.
The idea of Aero Day is "showing that there are many opportunities for engineering students to get into this quickly evolving industry," and connecting students to industry professionals.
Register for the Aero Day Talks
Register for the Aero Day Networking Mixer
Two of the speakers come from Avmax Aviation.
"They essentially modify aircraft in order to service a bunch of different needs within industry, whether it's surveillance, or wildfire surveying, or environmental data monitoring and gathering," said Dunhhoo.
The third speaker is Geoff Ritchie, former director of Aerospace and Defence Technologies with the Government of Alberta, whose job was advising the government how to grow the aerospace industry.
Dhunnoo says that until last year, he wasn't even aware there were so many aerospace opportunities right here in Alberta.
"I attended the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute conference and they talked about how Alberta has 70 or 80 companies that do aerospace-related things, and my peers and I hadn't heard of any of them before."
Aside from listening to the three Aero Day talks, students will have the opportunity to meet and network with more key partners in the Alberta aerospace industry-which may be beneficial to their future job prospects.
"A number of industry professionals currently working in aerospace will be attending our mixer to connect with students," said Dhunnoo. "I personally want to get into the aerospace industry after graduating, and this is a way for me to get my foot in the door and get my name out there."
And no matter which discipline they're in, Dhunnoo encourages all engineering students interested in aerospace to attend.
"Aerospace is such a cool thing because it encompasses a lot of different disciplines," he said. "So people think it's only mechanical but there are opportunities for electrical, chemical, even civil in some cases, and petroleum, systems engineering and electronics."
Aero Day takes place October 4, 2018 on the 8th floor of the Donadeo Innovation Centre for Engineering.