VARIETY MATTERS: engineering graduate Shamez Walji took on more challenges than most student do en route to his degree.
(Edmonton) Shamez Walji has just finished writing his last final exam en route to earning his engineering degree, and the emotional aftershock of completing that last big test is beginning to fade.
“I called my parents and told them I was done my last exam and thanked them for their support. I’m the first one in our family to complete university and they’ve been so supportive. I’m wetting up here,” he says, blinking back tears. He bows his head and with his right hand begins to toy with the iron engineering ring that now adorns his left pinky finger.
“Yeah—they helped me a lot,” he says, looking down at the ring, which signifies the moral and ethical responsibility engineers have to serve the public. “My parents are new Canadians, right? They moved here from Tanzania. They saw opportunity there—they would have been OK if they stayed there, you know, but they didn’t see a lot of prosperity there. When they looked to Canada, they saw prosperity.”
Hard work and sacrifice are clearly family traits. If an engineering undergraduate program were a buffet dinner, Walji has sampled every single dish. He explored nearly every opportunity available, from undergraduate student research projects to leadership and entrepreneurship classes, work experience, and even starting his own company.
“They liked my hustle...”
He uses the words “grit” and “hustle” a lot to describe his laser-focused approach to reaching his goals.
During his first year of studies he applied to attend a start-up boot camp run through the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, but was declined because the program was aimed at more senior students.
He attended anyway—just showed up and said he was really interested and wanted badly to learn how to start his own company.
“I guess they liked my grit because they said “Yeah, OK, c’mon in.””
It seems as though he always gets what he wants. And if that’s true, it’s due to perseverance and hard work or, as he puts it, “girt and hustle,” an uncanny ability to network, and making a conscious choice to give his employers and partners more than they hoped for.
“In my second year, there was a company looking for someone in their fourth or fifth year of engineering but I showed initiative. I did my research on steel manufacturing and I researched their processes and I showed some hustle and I got the job,” he says, adding that in each of the three engineering jobs he held down as a student, he showed initiative to find extra projects. In one case, that self-initiated project saved a company millions.
One of those jobs continues to this day. For the past semester, he has been working two days a week, providing technical consulting to a local company.
Starting a start-up
He tried his hand at research as well, doing two Dean’s Research Awards projects with mechanical engineering professor Andre McDonald, researching the properties of nano-aluminum coatings in aeronautics.
He ranks McDonald and materials engineering professor John Nychka among his best teachers.
Walji also worked hard to form his own business. After watching a program about a company using virtual reality technology, he came up with an idea to use VR to train athletes to improve their vision and reaction times. He took the idea to a business pitching event, found a partner working in neuroscience, then drew in computer programmers. The company, Unumbria Technologies, found clients but delays on software programming side of things—and new opportunities—have convinced him to fold the company.
The new opportunity? After competing at a pitch session last October, Walji was approached by a member of the audience who was involved with Next Canada (formerly The Next 36), a non-profit firm that provides education and support for “exceptional individuals with the potential to build something with global impact.”
It's the new The Next 36
Based in Toronto, the program provides recent graduates like Walji instruction and support, learning at the hand of professors from Harvard, MIT and the University of Toronto. Walji is spending his summer in the program and anticipates that he’ll learn a great deal.
“I always try to surround myself with the best people and while I was there for interviews and meeting my peers I realized that these people are the next level,” he says. “I’m only there because of hustle, grit and charisma, you know? These people are the real deal. One has raised $8 million. Another one got Mark Cuban to invest in a company. I have a feeling I’ll be punching up.”
But as is his way, Walji is confident.
“I’m really happy,” he says. “I’ve got a lot of real-life work experience. This is going to be a big learning experience—but I’m a fast learner.”