My Blog

Welcome! Make Every Day Count

In this blog, you are invited, indeed encouraged to make comments, to seek the help and advice of the mentors who have volunteered to make their contact information and their time available to you. This is designed to assist and encourage you, the new students in Management Engineering, to achieve your goals (and if necessary, to help formulate them). The mentors have recently successfully passed through the road that you are now traveling and so I encourage you strongly to make use of their experience.

There are other valuable professional help services available to you on campus that I would also strongly urge you to utilize in a timely and effective manner as you strive for success and excellence.

I am coordinating the efforts of the mentors and since I successfully passed through Engineering at Waterloo many years ago, became a Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario and have accumulated experience in the application of Engineering principles, I also wish to pass on some of what I believe to be accumulated wisdom and attributes of success.

I started an earlier term that I taught with the motto "Make the First Day Count." Well I have now modified my motto to the following: "Make Every Day Count." It is vital for success in Engineering to live by this maxim because success in Engineering is based on constructing solid, firm building blocks of wise combination of basic principles and applications.

The applications in Engineering are numerous and there may be a tendency to lose sight of the principles as you wade through reams of applications attempting to memorize the various applications. If you lose sight of the basic principles you may be surprised by the appearance of an application that you may not have seen before. These 'new' applications may appear when you are unable to get a 'second opinion.'

In my own work, I have found that basic principles are best internalized individually but that the applications are more efficiently grasped and executed by working and sharing in groups. That is, provided you do not fall into the major traps when working together in groups. Two of the major traps are, the emerging priorities of social agendas and the false notion that you can solve a problem once it has been solved in the group. So a word of caution is due here! After a problem has been solved in the group do a SELF TEST. I will say more about effective working in groups in future posts.

Dr. Clifford Blake, P. Eng.

cblake@engmail.uwaterloo.ca

Watch this Waterloo Management Engineering Video

Hi,

Professor Blake here. The University made this video that will be used in the recruiting process of prospective Management Engineering Students.

Here is the URL to view it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F25pnrX2qAY

Regards

Professor C. Blake P. Eng.

Survive and Thrive in 1B ManEng

For me, 1B was the hardest term that I have faced here in university. Here are a few tips that helped me make it through 1B (and future semesters too):

1. Ask questions. I guarantee you, 5-20 other people have the same question as you in class but are too afraid to ask. If you're still too scared: Email!

2. The name of the program can be deceiving. While there are management aspects to the program, IT'S STILL ENGINEERING! The first 2 1/2 years are virtually all related to engineering, so pay attention in calculus and physics class.

3. Learn programming. Programming is one skill that employers love and you can use on your very first work term. The assignments take a LONG time even though they are worth very little in the course, but it's worth it in the long run.

4. If you need to stay up till 1:00AM on a Friday night doing an assignment (i.e. calculus, programming, physics) do it. Order a pizza, grab your favorite drink and do it. Does it suck? Yes. Suck it up.

5. Learn, don't memorize. I did the ol' high school method of memorizing what I needed to know for the exam and then pretty much forgot it afterwards. Now in 3A, all of these concepts (i.e. double integration, matrices etc) are coming back in other classes and I'm struggling because I don't remember any of it.

6. Have fun. I know its cliche to say it, but it's true. Remember the engineering chant: ...We work hard, we play hard...? Live by it. Prove yourself worthy of being called a Waterloo Engineer.

Matthew Guilherme
matthew.guilherme@gmail.com
3A Management Engineering
University of Waterloo

Let Me Share Some of My First Year Experience

Hi, today I would like to share some of my experiences in the program during first year with you.
 
Many of you may already be aware of this fact, but the purpose of 1A is to make sure that everyone are on the same page regarding the fundamental courses of all engineering programs. Given that everyone came from different educational backgrounds, some may already be very familiar with the materials, while some may have never seen them before. However, it is possible to pass or fail in both scenarios if you are not careful.
 
I started first year with more prior knowledge about the materials than most people, since I took some Advanced Placement courses in High School. Given that, I thought I could lay back and loose focus every once in a while, for as long as the materials covered were still review. However, I was definitely wrong, as the professors enforced on a much deeper level of application of the concepts I was already familiar with. That was why I did not do as well as I expected to during midterms, since while I was preparing for them I thought I had known everything already.
 
What I want to suggest to you is even though you might have seen the materials before from High School and that you seem to be in a good position compared to others, don't lay back because you will fall behind. There will be new things that you have not seen before about those materials. Even if not, you could always use a review, so that when midterms and finals come you won't have to cram as much. Use your prior knowledge to your advantage and strengthen it even more, rather than use it to spare more time for procrastination.
 
 
Regards,
 
Pativet S.

 "Pativet Sathiensamrit" <light.sath@gmail.com>

How I Got Through First Year

I came to Waterloo with a relatively high entering average, but I was from a small town and a small high school, and by the end of the first week I could see that my education had not been nearly as extensive as most of my peers'.

I was intimidated, humbled, and definitely worried. All through 1A and 1B, my success was driven by my fear of failure; I worked and studied constantly, went to all of my classes, forced myself through every assignment, learned my study habits and made sure I still made time for some decent sleep. I wouldn't recommend fear as a driver for everyone (it's not very pleasant), but I do think that if you want to be successful in anything in life you need to focus on a driver of some sort.

You need to find what drives you and make that the reason you're working so hard, otherwise you'll eventually give up. This program is certainly not for everyone, but it is definitely do-able. If you can force yourself through first year, you'll inevitably develop the skills that will make everything much easier in the upper years. I've gained a lot of confidence since first year, and now I'm driven by personal achievement, great job opportunities and gaining skills needed to impact change. If Management Engineering is right for you, then you need to understand why, and then use those reasons as inspiration to keep focused and fuel your success.

 
The Specifics:
 
Everyone operates differently, so you need to figure out what works best for you, but here are a few specific things I do when I'm studying:
 
- Run through the material for all courses and take notes/ make cheat sheets before targeting any one class, and prepare a schedule for when you'll study for certain courses. (I usually do this 1-2 weeks before my first exam)
- Do tons of practice problems (especially in first year)
- Make a cheat sheet even if you can't bring it to the exam; it's good for last minute studying and making sure you covered everything.
- I know some people study together, but I think alone is best.
- Music for math, silence (or quiet) for heavy reading, and if you're reading, take notes.
- If you get bored, switch topics instead of taking huge breaks, but some breaking is good.
- Exercise, caffeine and sleep are very good for concentration (cardio excercise especially).
- If you've studied, don't go to an exam early and try to quiz each other up until the last second - you'll just get anxious and doubt yourself.
- Don't think "I'm in Management Engineering, why do I need to know this?" - you're learning how to learn, how to problem solve, and how to be technical and analytical, all of which you need to be an engineer (regardless of what kind).

I hope some of that helps, but like I said, everyone is different and identifying a personalized strategy early on will make things a lot easier for you. Please let me, or any of the mentors know if you have any questions.
 
Alex

"Alex Dueck" <dueckalex@gmail.com>

We'll show you the ropes

Hi guys, my name is Joonha Shin.  I started university in 2006 as a Computer Engineering student in UW but I did not like the program so I switched out in my 2nd year to this wonderful program also known as Management Engineering.

At the time, I was under a lot of stress and pressure so I know how it is like to face tough times as a student.  I'll be happy to help out and answer any questions you have about our program, my experiences with the engineering faculty, our university, co-op, living in residence, and so on.

I have done 4 work terms so far.  I have been a Desktop Support (Canadian Standards Association), Electronic Data Analyst (Siemens Power Generation), Automated Testing Software Developer (Unitron Hearing), and most recently, a Project Coordinator (Research In Motion).

FYI, I lived in MKV West 1 when I was in first year.  Oh those were the days...

Cheers!

Joonha Shin
shin.joonha@gmail.com (Email + GTalk)
shin.joonha@hotmail.com (MSN)

What Worked For Me In First Year

Hi:  Korey Cheung here again.

I will tell you what worked for me in getting through first year, so that it may hopefully help you in this term. 

            The 1B term was a very difficult term, because not only were the courses tough, there were six of them.  To stay with the pace of all the courses, I went to every lecture and tutorial and paid close attention in class.  This is important so that I didn’t need to study as much later on when it comes to the finals.  Also in courses such as physics, most problems that they solve in tutorials and extra help sessions have a good chance of showing up on the final.  Since they’ve showed me step by step how to solve the problems, it becomes much easier.

            My advice in short, let the instructors spoon feed you so that you can study less.

Korey Cheung

k9cheung@uwaterloo.ca    

I Believe I Can Help Students Adjust To The Heavy Workload

Tom Hong, j9hong@uwaterloo.ca

Hi,

My name is Tim Hong, and I am currently enrolled in 3A Management Engineering. My previous co-op terms include a transportation related position at an architecture firm in Korea, a position at SNC-Lavalin Toronto, and as an employee of the City of Toronto.

First, I want to say that I am very glad to be a part of this mentorship program. I used to wish for more guidance when I was in first year and I think this is a great opportunity to introduce myself a little bit. I am an international student from Korea and am able to speak Korean fluently. I love sports and exercising. I have been able to strike a healthy balance between my studies and my hobbies, such as sports. Because of this, I believe that I will be able to help kids adjust to not only keeping up with the heavy workload, but also be able to manage their time efficiently to get the most out of their university experience.

I am looking forward to helping you with any concerns and difficulties in your academic term.

 

Tim Hong

j9hong@uwaterloo.ca

I Have Seen First Hand the Importance of Mentoring

Hi Everybody!

My name is Matthew Guilherme and I'm in 3A Management Engineering. I'm originally from Calgary Alberta and I came out to Waterloo for the ManEng program and for co-op

My first two co-op jobs have been out in Alberta. The first one involved living in a trailer on an oilsands site north of Fort McMurray and the other was in downtown Calgary, with the Contractor Services division of a large oil company.

Last workterm I tried a mentoring job with the PDEng programme and have seen first hand the importance of mentoring. A lot of people have questions regarding PDEng and I would love to answer them as I have a lot of experience with it. Please don't hesitate to ask questions as open communication is an important skill for anybody to have (especially managers and engineers).

Hope you have a great term and I look forward to helping wherever possible and learning a few things myself.

Matthew Guilherme, 3A Management Engineering

matthew.guilherme@gmail.com

 

 

My Faith and Motivation for the Programme Can Help New Students

 

My name is Pativet Sathiensamrit, currently going on to the 3A term in Mangement Engineering.

I wish to be a part in helping the newcomers to the program understand what the program leads to as well as what it takes to last in the program. When people are clear about what they have to do, and what those things will lead to I feel that they can become more motivated and trust the program, thus become successful in proceeding to future terms.

I was an academic representative in my 1A term, and had represented the class when it was entirely new to the professors that taught our program for the first time. I am also currently representing the Thai Students Association as the Social Chair and the Global Representative.

I also had a rough time myself in first year, and have gradually improved throughout the terms, leading to my current status as "good standing." I feel that my experiences, along with the fact that I truly have faith and motivation for the program I can become a good mentor to those that are new to the program.

Pativet (Light) Sathiensamrit
light.sath@gmail.com

My Favourite Courses are Those That Deal With Calculus and Physics

Hi,My name is Dairai (pronounced Dye Rye) Nyabando and I am in 3rd year of the Management Engineering Program. I am 20 years old and originally from Zimbabwe. I moved here in 2006 and my family lives in Vancouver. I enjoy playing sports especially basketball and soccer, and am pretty much open to watching any sport on TV.

My favorite courses are those that deal with Calculus and Physics.

Dairai Nyabando
dairai.nyabando@gmail.com