February 2008 Issue

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STUDENT COLUMN

GEER Week Kicks Off 2008

BY KORY MATHEWSON
University of Alberta Student Columnist (Engineering)
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At the University of Alberta Engineering Students’ Society, things are happening. January is the most eventful month of our calendar, and the fun was well deserved after all the effort we put in over the holiday break.
Most of the major events in January were part of Geer Week, a cutthroat competition between engineering disciplines in a cornucopia of events. Of course all the competition is friendly, but that is not what the warriors of floor hockey and tug of war would say.

Other events included a design competition, Are You Smarter than a First Year?, a scavenger hunt, and a tech display.

Geer Week concluded with one of the most beneficial and well-attended events of the ESS, the Career Fair. Around 45 companies come out to our event each year, and each year we get more and more demand from students and the presenters.

This is a great chance for co-op and traditional students to research a summer job, and for companies big and small to find employees. The Faculty of Engineering has about 3,750 undergraduate students, and another 700 graduate students. Of these, we expected a minimum of 1,000 students to pass through the fair.

Almost overlapping with Career Fair was a wonderful national event, hosted by the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students. The Western Engineering Competition this year in Victoria featured 10 University of Alberta students.

Competing in junior design were Leslie Symon, Eric Rasmuss, Marcus Beaudry and Charles Heard, in senior design Vicki Ng, Amy Heard, Bruno Schwizer and Josh Laurence, and in debate Mark Hlady and Charles Heard. Results will be published when they arrive. The winners of each competition will be sponsored to travel to the Canadian Engineering Competition in Waterloo, Ont.

SO SMART THEIR HAIR GLOWS The reason for the brightly coloured mops is, of course, to raise money for cancer research. Engineering students at the U of A brought in more than $117,000 for the cause.

Head Shave-Hair Dye numbers are in and they are, for another year, astonishing. Coordinators started planning the event in August, and it paid off. The 85 participants — 20 more than last year — shaved their heads in support of cancer research. Forty hair dye participants, up from last year’s 25, rocked a funky colour for the days leading up to the shave.

In the third annual Head Shave, we raised over $71,000, so our goal this year was to reach $100,000. We raised at least $46,000 (plus online donations and late pledges), which brings our total to above $117,000.
We created a slideshow featuring pictures of participants’ loved ones who were afflicted with cancer. We also created a Wall of Tribute, which allowed participants to post a message on the wall to commemorate loved ones. The participants were each given toques, an Alberta Cancer Foundation bracelet, and Elk Valley Coal swag.

Way to go University of Alberta Engineering Head Shave Hair Dye participants and all the donors. A special thanks as well to our sponsors — Elk Valley Coal, Marvel College, GP Technology, all the departments and of course the faculty.

The ESS Engineering Ball allowed us to celebrate the end of Geer Week. But with all the events we must not get sidetracked. Our education is what is important and schooling is a crucial ingredient in that.