april 2009 issue

STUDENT COLUMN
Pizzas and Pi

Fun events follow midterms for University of Alberta engineering students

BY JOCELYN WESTWOOD U of A Student Columnist (Engineering)

The end of February marked an exciting time for most engineering students; it meant that midterms were finally drawing to a close.

While this was a cheerful thought, students at the University of Alberta had still more to be excited about, as the end of February also meant that National Engineering & Geosciences Week had arrived. NEGW allows industry, faculty and students alike to celebrate their work and studies in the fields of engineering, geology and geophysics.

The Engineering Students’ Society organized several events that spanned the week. The first of these was the fifth annual Engineers’ Banquet. Traditionally, the banquet has been the wrap-up for NEGW. This year, however, the banquet served as the kick-off in an attempt to involve more faculty and students in the coming NEGW events.

The banquet took place Feb. 27 at the Faculty Club and was well attended by students and faculty. In the spirit of NEGW, the banquet also featured the awards presentation for the Golden Geer, the Coordinator of the Year and the Associate Vice-President of the Year awards.

Golden Geers go to about 10 graduating students who have made a significant impact on the engineering community during their time at the U of A. This year, the awards were given to a range of students; some were involved in clubs such as Engineers Without Borders or the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race, while others contributed to the ESS and discipline clubs.

Coordinator of the Year is Dana Marsh, a computer engineering student who held multiple coordinator positions within the ESS. Stephanie Daoust, an electrical engineering student, was awarded Associate Vice-President of the Year for her work as AVP academic affairs. Both are university student members of APEGGA.

The next NEGW event, on March 2, was called Communication Breakdown. The goal was to highlight the importance of communication, even in an engineering setting.

One student was required to build a LEGO structure identical to his or her partner’s. But there was a catch — the student constructing the structure could not see the other one, and had to work only by following the spoken instructions given by the partner. This activity was more difficult than it seemed and showed that although engineers excel at calculation, effective communication is the key to success.

The week wound up with the Cold Pizza Breakfast on March 3, in place of the more traditional pancake breakfast — and to the delight of students.

Fredericton Returnees
Two teams of four students attended Canadian Engineering Competition at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, March 5-8. The teams competed in two categories: Innovative Design and Consulting Engineering.

CEC was a highly focused competition, said APEGGA university student member Mark Hlady of the Consulting Engineering team. Competitors took it “a lot more seriously” than they did at the Western Engineering Competition.

Although neither team placed in the top three at CEC, they did an excellent job of representing the U of A at such a prestigious competition, and should be proud of their efforts.

Pi Week
One of the most entertaining events of the year took place during the week of March 9. The Pi Throw was organized in honour of Pi Day, or March 14, and raised funds for Habitat for Humanity.

PI TO THE DEAN’S FACE Dean David Lynch, P.Eng., takes one on the chin — and ears and eyes and other places — for charity. Students used Pi Throw to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.

During the first few days of the event, pies were purchased for $10 each. These pies were then delivered to the recipient in class later in the week. The recipient, upon hearing that he or she had received a pie, had three choices: take it in the face for no charge, redirect it for $10, or buy it for 10-times-pi — about $30.

If the option to redirect the pie was chosen, the next recipient had all of the same options. Except the price to redirect was now $15. And so it went, increasing $5 on each redirect.

This fundraiser was very exciting and involved all members of engineering disciplines on campus. Even professors and staff were not immune to being pied; in fact, several of the discipline clubs sent pies to their favourite professors.

Pi Throw was an entertaining event that allowed students to have some fun and relax between midterms and final exams, in addition to raising a respectable amount of money for Habitat for Humanity.