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Environmental Engineering

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What’s this career all about?

Environmental Engineering is the integration of engineering and problem solving to improve the natural environment and to protect our natural resources. They help provide healthy water, air, and land for all organisms.

environmental engineer standing over a small creek

What kind of courses do Environmental Engineers study in school?

  • Agricultural engineering
  • Wastewater Treatment
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Civil Engineering
  • Air Pollution Control

What are some cool projects that Environmental Engineers get to work on?

  • Measuring the amount of pollution that goes into our air each day
  • Design methods to accurately measure acid rain, car emissions, ozone depletion
  • Invent better ways to recycle paper, plastic, and glass
  • Study Green Buildings for quality living

What are qualities of an Environmental Engineer?

  • Curious
  • Love the Outdoors
  • Able to work well in groups
  • Creativity/Innovation Skills
  • Active Learning-understanding the need to learn more information as the future progresses

How do Environmental Engineers contribute to making the world a better place?

Environmental Engineers contribute to making our world a better place by improving our natural environment in creative ways. They develop and pursue ideas that are made to improve our everyday life. They weigh different options for many engineering projects and speak up with an alternative idea if they believe that the project will have a negative effect on the environment. Environmental Engineers keep animals, eco-systems and fresh resources in mind when trying to improve our everyday life.

Computer Engineering

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What’s this career all about?

Computer engineering combines electrical engineering with computer science.

A Computer Engineer is someone who designs, develops and tests computer software (the programs and apps that run on a device) and hardware (the device itself) as well as things that are run by computers (ex. robots or medical machinery). They work on making designed computer systems faster and easier to use and fix mistakes (“bugs”) that cause problems within the computer system.

What kind of courses do Computer Engineers study in school?

  • Biocomputation – organizing, analyzing and retrieving data concerning biological systems (i.e. gene sequencing)
  • Introduction to Micro- and Nano-Fabrication Technologies/li>
  • Computer Security
  • Real-Time Computer Control
  • Robot Modeling and Control

What are some cool projects that Computer Engineers get to work on?

  • Developing and designing the GPS navigation system
  • Designing smartphone interfaces
  • Designing a game console
  • Designing and making a medical scanner that can help doctors see and diagnose the state of a patient’s organs
  • Designing super thin laptops and tablets without sacrificing any of a typical laptop’s abilities

What are qualities of a Computer Engineer?

  • Being Logical:
  • Being a quick learner
  • Problem Solver:
  • Being creative
  • Excellent Mathematical Ability

How do Computer Engineers contribute to making the world a better place?

Computer engineers contribute to the world by designing and developing technology that improves living conditions, health and productivity. Without computer engineers, we wouldn’t have smartphones, video games or medical technology (to name a few).

Civil Engineering

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What’s this career all about?

Civil engineers design, construct and maintain structures that make up our world. Such structures can include highways, skyscrapers, railways, bridges and water reservoirs.

What kind of courses do Civil Engineers study in school?

  • Construction Engineering
  • Environmental Impact and Risk Assessment
  • Engineering Design and Professional Practice
  • Structural Engineering and Building Science
  • Law and Contracts in Civil Engineering

What are some cool projects that Civil Engineers get to work on?

  • Build accessible shelters for hurricane and flooding victims
  • Plan and design major projects like buildings, roads, and bridges.
  • Designing airport runway systems to help reduce airport delays
  • Supplying clean water and disposing of wastewater
  • Rebuilding a deteriorating urban infrastructure
  • Creating structures to withstand natural disasters

What are qualities of a Civil Engineer?

  • Can network and speak to groups to facilitate discussion
  • Good grasp of math and physics
  • Excellent risk assessment skills
  • Creativity
  • Collaborative

How do Civil Engineers contribute to making the world a better place?

Without Civil Engineers, we wouldn’t have highways, bridges, or even water in our houses. They build and design the things we use on a daily basis to get our life essentials.

They make structures possible and make them safe, efficient, and practical.

Biomedical Engineering

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What’s this career all about?

Biomedical engineers use their knowledge of engineering, medicine and biology to develop solutions to medical problems or procedures. They focus on different areas for providing an overall enhancement of health care to the society. Tissues, medical imaging, orthopedic surgery, biomechanics and genetic engineering are just a few of the many specialties. Biomedical engineers often need to work with experts from other fields like chemist, physician, surgeons and other specialists. The majority of the time they work in research labs as a team.

What kind of courses do Biomedical Engineers study in school?

  • Introduction to Medical Imaging and Applications
  • Bio-materials and Biocompatibility
  • Law and Ethics in Engineering Practise
  • Tissue & Rehabilitation Engineering

What are some cool projects that Biomedical Engineers get to work on?

  • Creating and designing prosthetic legs
  • Develop safe and accurate ultrasound technology to help doctors monitor babies in utero
  • Growing tissues that help repair damage from heart attacks
  • Relieving chronic neck pain and help children with cerebral palsy walk by creating an internal medication pump for anti-muscle-spasm drug

What are 5 qualities of a Biomedical Engineers?

  • Able to work effectively with people from various disciplines and educational backgrounds
  • Creativity
  • Strong Analytical Skills
  • Keen interest in positive health outcomes
  • Well-rounded academic interests

How do Biomedical Engineers contribute to making the world a better place?

Biomedical engineers contribute to the world by creating new devices and medication that can help those who need the assistance, such as those patients who need a heart transplant, pacemaker, or an artificial arm! They are always developing new creations to help enhance the quality of life for those around the world.

Aerospace Engineering

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What’s this career all about?

An Aerospace Engineer can do many things such as research, design, develop, maintain and test different types of airplanes, satellites and spaceships. They also work on the different components that make up these aircraft and systems.

There are two types of Aerospace Engineers;

  1. Aeronautical- they work on airplanes and helicopters; things that stay in the earth’s atmosphere.
  2. Astronautical- they work on rockets, space shuttles; basically, spacecraft things that are not in the earth’s atmosphere.

What kind of courses do Aerospace Engineers study in school?

  • Mechanism and vibrations
  • Flight mechanics
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Aircraft stability & control

What are some cool projects that Aerospace Engineers get to work on?

  • Designing the latest ground and aquatic transportation such as deep sea vessels and high-speed trains
  • Creating Spaceships to further explore our solar system
  • Designing airplane wings that change shape to enhance manoeuvrability
  • Creating more efficient space satellites to collect information in space, such as detecting drought
  • Creating guidelines and flight paths for astronauts and mission control

What are 5 qualities of an Aerospace Engineers?

  • Creativity
  • Excellent analytical and logical-thinking skills
  • Excellent knowledge of mathematics and physics
  • Communication
  • High proficiency in research methodology, experiments and data collection

How do Aerospace Engineers contribute to making the world a better place?

Aerospace engineers have changed our world through time by creating means to travel through air and by water to get around the world.

Through the use of their creativity and the laws of science, they have made means for use not only to travel inside our world but into outer space. With time aerospace engineers will surely be responsible for use travelling through galaxies. Without aerospace engineering going on vacation on another continent or even visiting your family in another country would have been impossible. Yet through the use of innovation, they are working every day to make our everyday modes of transportation safer and better for the future.

They design clean-burning jet engines, improved plasma displays, or super-efficient wind turbines to harvest wind energy.

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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