Concurrent Session Descriptions

Please note we will try and accommodate your request but minor substitutions may occur based on room capacity and presenter availability

 

Concurrent Session # 1 11:00AM-11:30AM  (8 Available Sessions)

Concurrent Session # 2 11:30AM-12:00PM (8 Available Sessions)

** Concurrent Session #1 & 2 will be offering the SAME sessions

 

16 Months, 3 Countries, 1 Internship

Presenter: Nicholas Robson

From Canadian National Team Athlete to Smart Cities Enthusiast, learn about Nicholas’ PEY experience at an engineering acoustics firm called Echologics. Over the course of 16 months, Nicholas worked with water utilities across Canada, the US, and the UK to help reduce their water loss using sound waves. Learn about the advantages of travelling for work as well as how a Canadian based firm is a leader in the smart water industry.

 

Creating revolutionary projects through PEY Co-op

Presenter Diana Vucevic

The workshop will cover the strengths and skills needed for a research position. Diana will highlight the learning curve of a PEY Co-op position that emphasized on technical skills such as coding and signal processing coming from a MSE academic background. More specifically, the challenges faced learning new skills while trying to meet deadlines at the same time. The opportunities and networks created from research will be unlike any other job position. Diana was a part of multiple revolutionary biomedical projects with UHN - changing the boundaries of how clinical practice is done today. The biggest reward for Diana during her PEY Co-op was developing a CPR biosenser, selling the license and receiving shares from the device. Diana wants to encourage engineering students to step outside their comfort zone - feel the fear and do it anyway.

 

Navigating the financial services industry - Software Focus

Presenter: Lingkai Shen

During this presentation Lingkai will share their own PEY Co-op experience, from their application, interview experience, and ramping up during the first few weeks. Lingkai will also share some tips, and thoughts on what it feels like to be in a software role within the financial services industry. Time permitting, Lingkai would also explore how they out-grew their PEY Co-op role through networking.

 

Trials and Tribulations of Semiconductor chips

Presenter: Arnav Goel

Hear about Arnav’s experiences working on building deep learning vision networks on semiconductor chips for a company called NXP semiconductor! - The world’s biggest semiconductor company for autonomous driving! Come and hear about the challenges and what Arnav has learnt! From working with his own custom operating system and hardware which was built for the purpose of running feed-forward networks parallelly in real time for autonomous cars at very low power

 

Making the Right Moves for your PEY Co-op

Presenter: Ali Mahdavifar

The Professional Experience Year is a great opportunity for one to chase their interests outside of the university environment and (re)discover their paths for pursuing a professional career after graduation. In Ali’s presentation, they take the audience with him through his PEYCo-op journey from how he applied to job positions and accepted the offer, to how he spent my time during my internship. Ali will also share with the future co-op students some advice and key things to remember in making well-informed and conscious decisions for choosing their PEY Co-op job.

 

Consulting PEY Co-op: How PEY Co-op can help you steer your career

Presenter: Herman Chandi

This workshop aims to teach you best practices in goal setting during your PEY Co-op and how to work within your environment to not only make progress on your stated goals, but also achieve your ideal experience, learn more about yourself, and prepare for your future. The workshop will cover Herman’s own PEY experience at Deloitte where he implemented various practices to get as much as possible out of the experience. Herman will also discuss how he used his PEY Co-op to better understand what he enjoyed and didn’t enjoy doing, and how that led to his next chapter at A.T. Kearney in management consulting. By the end of this session, Herman hopes you will have a clearer picture for how you can leverage your PEY Co-op to steer your career.

 

2 PEY Co-ops: 1 Company - Exploring IT and Sales

Presenter: Heather Kelsall

Heather has recently completed two back-to-back internships at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in IT and Sales. She will be speaking about her experience in making PEY her own and discovering incredible learning opportunities all within one company. She will share her journey in determining and actively pursuing her PEY Co-op goals with practical tips for students beginning their search.

 

How PEY Co-op has shaped me!

Presenter: Sargol Okhovatian

Learn about how PEY Co-op has changed Sargol’s experience and outlook! Before starting his PEY Co-op position, Sargol like many prospective PEY Co-op students were unsure / lacked confidence. When starting the position, Sargol pushed past the learning curve and improved his communication skills, management skill and more. These skills provided him with greater insight surrounding his future professional plans.

 

Concurrent Session # 3 12:00PM-12:30PM (8 Available Sessions)

Concurrent Session # 4 12:30PM-1:00PM (8 Available Sessions)

** Concurrent Session #3 & 4 will be offering the SAME sessions

 

How I became a “Shark Tank” winner during PEY Co-op

Presenter: Betty Liu

Sixteen months ago, Betty started off her PEY Co-op with BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Novato, California. While conducting research with liquid handling robots and gene therapy products, Betty frequently experienced frustration when trying to borrow resources from other laboratories within the company. An opportunity came along to address that issue, and she accidentally entered BioMarin’s first internal “Shark Tank” competition… It turned into a wild journey of speeches, interviews, project management101, product testing and meetings with the CTO. This experience, plus many other California adventures, has pushed Betty to examine herself closely. What motivates me? What are my strengths and weaknesses? How far can I push my own boundaries? These questions have not been fully answered, but PEY Co-op has surely brought her one step closer to finding those answers.

 

From PEY Co-op to Entrepreneurship

Presenter: Mahan Salehi

As PEY Co-op approaches, most engineering students are thinking about what skills and experiences they need in order to work at a reputable company. But what can you do during your PEY Co-op if you are interested in starting your own company? After using his PEY Co-op to work in industry first and subsequently work full-time on building a startup, Mahan will share insights about what to expect when transitioning between the two worlds. The workshop will cover tips for what students can do during their PEY Co-op to help them on their journey of becoming an entrepreneur.

 

From ESP to PEY Co-op

Presenter: Addy Bhatia

Being in student projects has taught me a lot about engineering, designing, and managing requirements for a project. However, stepping into the world of day to day engineering at a real company was eye opening. When the deadlines, deliverables, project design, and code are all up to you, where do you start? What do you research? Who do you reach out to, when the entire company is busy in their own projects? Becoming a project manager, engineer, designer right after stepping outside a class room is more exciting than daunting, and I'd do it again in a heart beat.

 

Being Your Own Manager

Presenter: Shun Higuchi

Come and listen to Shun’s unique experience, from gaining technical skills about transportation engineering, to developing his organization and management skills. The unique matrix structure of the BA Group was one of the many factors that greatly contributed to his growth as a professional. This included handling multiple projects simultaneously, actively collaborating with co-workers, and managing oneself. In the discussion “Being Your Own Manager,” Shun would like to share his experience working as a freelance consultant in the matrix structure and what he have learned in the course of the 16-month PEY Co-op.

 

Finding Opportunities during your PEY Co-op

Presenter: Katherine Wei

Looking for a PEY Co-op for undergraduate engineering students is an exciting time. During this presentation Katherine will be speaking about how she landed on this job in Bell Mobility as a chemical engineering student. Katherine will break down the barriers as the job initially sounds unrelated to her engineering program. She would like to share her challenges and learning in service testing, troubleshooting, and development during her PEY Co-op.

 

Working in Cross Functional Teams Across Functional, Technical and Actual Borders

Presenter: Anujan Murugesu

Come and listen to this unique working environment! Agile teams are becoming bigger and more cross functional everyday. Project teams are made up of not just developers but testers, business, finance, marketing and other fields with everyone working together simultaneously across different countries. Anujan will speak to about his experience working on one of the biggest capital projects at Intact covering almost all areas of the business. Working with people from multiple streams of the business and collaborating with developers and partners across the country on the journey to delivering a brand-new, industry leading national policy system for clients.

 

How to make the most out of your PEY Co-op

Presenter: Lana El Sanyoura

Your PEY Co-op is what you make it! Turn it into one of the best years of your undergraduate career! Lana completed her PEY Co-op working with the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, doing research on Neuroscience inspired AI, and then completing 12 months with Intel on Deep Learning Acceleration. While on PEY Co-op Lana did research, took courses, and joined extracurricular initiatives such as UAIG (The undergrad AI Group) In this presentation Lana will provide tips on how to excel in the workplace to anecdotes of how she made the most out of her PEY Co-op! The talk is designed to help you make your PEY Co-op unforgettable!

 

Leading Data Analytics at Airbus’ Landing Gear Centre of Competence

Presenter: Bonnie Weng

Come and listen to Bonnie’s experience! She was a Landing Gear Digitalization Intern at Airbus UK during her 12-month PEY Co-op placement. At Airbus, she worked with the UK Data Analytics Plateau to utilize big data analytics to enhance systems design. Throughout the year, she had performed analysis to support the design requirements validation of the Electric Taxiing System and the Braking Steering Control System of A320 aircraft. Bonnie will first share her technical experience at Airbus, then talk about her leadership development as a female engineer at a multinational corporate and her multicultural experience as a young expat living abroad.