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Data Visualization in the AlloSphere

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

What is this TED talk about?

This Ted talk is about how engineers, scientists and artists came to together to create a 3 story metal sphere called the AlloSphere. Arts, science and engineering all being molded into one great way to understand our universe. It allows us to see and hear things we were never able to comprehend before.

What’s awesome about it?

This TED talk allows to see, hear and truly study the human brain, artificial nature, multi-centre hydrogen bond, hydrogen atom and many more to come. This gives us the availability to widen our knowledge of many objects we could have never studied before. It takes you inside this object and truly allows you to understand it and build upon by recreating it in a larger size in the AlloSphere.

How did it inspire you?

It inspired me by allowing me to see how people in engineering are working together with many others to widen our knowledge of everything and anything. It opens up my mind to the fact that anything is possible and as we grow so does our ability to truly understand this universe and everything within it.

What surprised you?

What surprised me was that we are so far into understanding ourselves and everything around us. Such ground breaking research is being done around us every day and we know nothing of it. Our society needs to become more involved in furthering ourselves as well as honouring those who are advancing our knowledge every day.

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it

I have never come up with a specific idea or product to aid in solving problems around the world but I do believe in the protection of our environment. Although I have never created anything myself I do try in my daily efforts to help protect our environment and solve our everyday issues.

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Visit the Allosphere Homepage

Engineering a Viral Video

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

What is this TED talk about?

This TED Talk was about the creation of an extensive Rube Goldburg machine that was used in a viral music video.

What’s awesome about it?

It was great seeing the music video after Adam Sadowsky explained all the difficulties in making the machine because knowing just how hard it was to make that machine made it that much cooler seeing it in action.

How did it inspire you?

Seeing how much fun it was makes me realize that there are so many ways to enjoy yourself and be entertained without keeping your face glued to a screen. (Which is ironic because I had my face glued to the screen throughout that whole video)

What surprised you?

Even though Adam Sadowsky explained how complicated the machine was, I was still blown away at how extensive it was. While watching the machine work, I kept thinking about how hard so many people worked for so long, just for a few seconds of footage.

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it

When I was young I thought about creating zip lines between high rises as fun and faster way to get from one to another. I used to try this out by tying up string across the house and making my barbies ride in baskets.

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Here’s the video:

Tissue Engineering

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Procrastinating? We’ve got just the thing! The YTT have pulled together a series of TED Talks that they LOVE. Grab some popcorn and get comfy, because you’re about to get seriously inspired by these amazing engineering projects.

What is this TED talk about?

This TED talk is about tissue engineering. Scientists and engineers have been able to harvest skin cells and force them back into the embryonic stem cell stage. They can then choose what type of tissue to create (e.g. brain, liver, heart) out of these stem cells. They can then test different drugs on the tissues. This could potentially be the future of medicine, where drugs could be engineered specifically to your DNA so that your healthcare is personalized and works perfectly for you with very few side effects.

What’s rad about it?

This tissue engineering is amazing because it offers the possibility of a future of personalized medicine, where drugs could be tested specifically with your DNA to see if they work for you. This would reduce the need for animal and human testing, would save a lot of money, and would ensure the best healthcare possible. It offers so much hope for the treatment of so many diseases! There’s also the “cool factor” of it…how cool is it that they can create living, functioning heart tissue that actually beats!?

How did it inspire you?

This video was so inspiring because it was just so cool! I never knew that engineers could do things like this. I’ve always had an interest in the human body/medicine, but this opened my eyes to a whole new revolutionary technology that has the potential to change the world! I’m inspired to learn more about the topic.

What surprised you?

I was surprised that it was an engineer who created this concept! My perception was that engineers build and develop things that help society in general (devices, bridges, transportation, etc) and that doctors develop new biological medical technology. It was fascinating to learn that engineers can create things like this!

Did you ever have an idea about developing something yourself that solves a problem in the world? Tell us all about it

I have absolutely no idea how I would do it, but I would love to develop something that helps cure cancer in a way that doesn’t affect the rest of the body, something that is a better alternative to chemotherapy. I heard about this one study where they were trying to kill cancer cells by injecting the tumor with a virus. I’d like to help develop something like that that could help so many people who are suffering.

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Check out Nina’s Website

Tina Traini

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Tina Traini

Tina Traini is the Director, IT Systems and Solutions at Right To Play. Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play – playing sports, playing games – to educate and empower children facing adversity.Tina Traini

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

I knew that an engineering education would be hard and rewarding but I didn’t realize that it would teach me how to learn and solve problems in a way that would be applicable to any field/challenge in life.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

Outside of school, it would be hard to pick. I’ve done some pretty cool things with different clients all over the world. These were always a team effort so it’s easy to be proud of what you and your team have accomplished when the task seems complex and daunting and in the end, you have a satisfied client. During school, I worked with a few classmates to start a musical show entirely created and executed by engineering students. To work together with my peers to pull of something so creative was absolutely fantastic. The McMaster Engineers still put on the show every year. It makes me pretty proud.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

In 2007 I decided to participate in a program my company had to offer consulting services to charity groups and spent time working for Plan International. I was fascinated to see how the skills and experience I had in IT could be useful in the not for profit world. It was a very rewarding experience that ultimately led me to where I am now.

Q: What are you doing these days?

Right now I am working as the Director, IT Systems and Solutions at Right To Play. Right To Play is a global organization that uses the transformative power of play – playing sports, playing games – to educate and empower children facing adversity. My team and I manage IT operations for 7 donor and 20 field offices around the world and coordinate all new solution development to support our work.

During school, I worked the summers at a microelectronics company doing R&D and new business development. When I finished school I had no idea what was next but met an alumnus at a career fair who convinced me to look at consulting as a career. I was hooked and I went straight into technology consulting with a global firm weeks after graduation. I spent nearly 14 years there working in all kinds of industries solving client challenges. I don’t think I had any idea where I was headed when I started this journey but have been very fortunate with the opportunities I have made/found along the way.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

Absolutely! At Right To Play, my work enables our program delivery that impacts the lives of over one million children around the world (and even in Canada and the US). My team is responsible for making sure that Right To Play employees can collaborate and connect and that the systems, processes and policies they need are in place and well supported.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

Everyone has something unique to contribute to the field of engineering. The more diverse and inclusive the field can be the more creative and visionary. This includes making sure that women occupy many seats at the table.

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Pegah Garousi

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Q&A WITH EngHERO: Pegah Garousi

Pegah is a Technical Consultant at CiRBA Inc. She provides consulting services for capacity management of data centres including architecture and design, installation and configuration of software in enterprise environments and provides training to customers across the world.

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

In high school, I knew that engineering wouldn’t be easy but I didn’t know how much work and hours I had to put in for my studies. I had to completely change my studying techniques from the way I studied in high school in order to find the best and most efficient way of studying.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

My proudest accomplishment as an engineer would be working on complex projects and being recognized for the work that I’ve done while being one of a few females. This always been a great accomplishment and it has greatly encouraged me to work even harder.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

I have always been a very curious person who always wants to make sure I have an in-depth understanding of how things are done and why. A few times, my curiosity has made me discover issues that no one else has discovered before and I was able to provide a solution that exceeded the one already in place.

Q: What are you doing these days?

I am a Technical Consultant at CiRBA Inc. I provide consulting services for the capacity management of data centres including architecture and design, installation and configuration of software in enterprise environments, integration, customization, operation of analyses and deliver training to customers across the world.

I studied Software Engineering at the University of Ottawa, which gave me a solid background on the life cycle of software development (requirement gathering, architecture and design, implementation, testing, deployment and support).

During my second to third year of university, I worked part-time as a Quality Assurance Analyst and changed to a Software Developer position in my last year of university. After graduation, I was interested in project management but having just graduated, I needed more experience before entering that role. And so I became a Systems Engineer, which entailed designing and managing complex engineering projects over their life cycles. Having this experience made me realize that I enjoyed solving technical problems than managing projects and so I have decided to continue my career in that.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

Society today is being so technology driven, working in IT contributes a lot to the society. My work helps many of the Global 3000 companies who use CiRBA software to create leaner and more reliable data centres. With our professional services, we provide specialist advice to help reduce costs and allow them to be more efficient as well as allowing them to achieve any other business requirements by providing custom solutions.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

I think it’s a very common mistake that engineering is solely for men. There are currently more men than women in engineering but this doesn’t mean that it’s more difficult for women to be successful. There were about 12-15 females in different subjects of engineering in my year and we were all considered top of our classes.

I’m glad I picked engineering as I realized how interesting it was. It helps you to understand how anything around you works and it allows you to eventually be the engineer who creates one of those things.

Q: Do you think it is important for women to be involved in engineering? Or do you think having more males is sufficient and that it doesn’t really make a difference whether there are more women or not?

I believe that more women should be involved in engineering and that the male-driven stereotype should be broken. There are so much that women can contribute. Studies have proven that women are better at multitasking (which is something that is very important in a work environment). So many distractions could potentially impact the quality of your work. Women are more organized, even under pressure. During a study, they have observed that women spend more time thinking at the beginning whereas men tend to have impulses to jump in way too quickly.

In conclusion, being able to multitask effectively and think things through from the beginning are skills that women have which will give them the advantage over men. Women will not waste any time and/or money at a later stage in the project.

Isabel Deslauriers

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Q&A WITH engHERO: Isabel Deslauriers

Isabel Deslauriers is the national coordinator of Let’s Talk Science which organizes cool science activities for younger kids with the help of volunteers across the nation, with hopes of informing children about careers in science and engineering.Isabel Deslauriers in Italy

Q: What’s one thing you wish you knew about engineering back when you were in high school?

I received a lot of information about engineering from my parents. I think that one thing that is good to know is that in engineering you pick what you want to do; there are many jobs available with the same degree, so you can choose the single thing that is best for you to do as a job.

Q: What’s your proudest accomplishment as an engineer?

I think that my job, as a whole, impacts all the volunteers and kids who are involved with different projects. One of the most satisfying aspects is to able to help others discover engineering and their interests in it.

Q: Tell me about a time in your career when your work has been about discovery or curiosity?

There are two examples that I can think of. One is regarding me and using science to solve problems; I was working on cryptography and trying to discover the best code using different ways, and I really enjoyed the application of these skills and methods. The second one is when working with kids and seeing how they are amazed when discovering how to do something.

Q: What are you doing these days?

I’m a national coordinator of outreach at Let’s Talk Science which is a non-profit organization that plans and does hands-on science activities with kids in order to make them interested in science. In terms of education, I have a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. I was always interested in science and I attended a science camp during high school that made me interested in engineering, teaching and research. I also volunteered with Let’s Talk Science, because it brought together my interests.

Q: Do you feel your work contributes to society? How so?

I think that my work is helping to move our society towards making a better world. Especially because I’m part of a non-profit organization, I can really feel good about helping others make the most of their abilities.

Q: Why do we need more female engineers?

I think the question is that why aren’t there naturally more female engineers? I think we should give a chance to any girls to know she can to in engineering. Boys and girls are equally interested in science up to grade 5, and girls tend to be less interested afterwards, which is still unclear why, but it could be caused by stereotypes and their surroundings.

Q: You have done some work related to beekeeping and RC airplanes. Could you tell me about them and what made you interested in them?

As a child, I was always interested in science, like playing with ants and experimenting with their lifestyle and what influences it. I was also interested in artistic and mechanical things. RC airplanes are one of my hobbies that bring my interests together.

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Check out Let’s Talk Science