Engineering clubs are created by students and for students. They provide a sandbox that allows future engineers to do new things, sometimes starting with mistakes. COVID-19 has put clubs in jeopardy, but they are coming back strong and punching above their weight. “It’s not something you expect a group of students to take on because of the technical complexity,” says Thomas Ganley, an engineering physics student and member of the AlbertaSat club. The “something” he’s talking about is building Alberta’s second satellite, Ex-Alta 2, and preparing it for launch in early 2023. Ex-Alta 2 (part of a group of satellites) is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in January 2023. Image courtesy of the Nanosats database The team working on Ex-Alta 2 includes up to 100 students at different levels of engagement. They report on the processes, training, leadership and network of a small professional engineering firm. And that’s kind of the point. “Developing technology and technology, debugging, troubleshooting, planning or designing the various phases of a mission gives you skills that are really useful once you graduate and start in industry,” says Ganley, the project director. And that satellite they built? It also has real-world implications. Ex-Alta 2 (part of a group of satellites) is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in January 2023 from Cape Canaveral in Florida. From there, it will deploy into orbit, where it will monitor ground fires, fire danger zones and post-burn areas. AlbertaSat isn’t the only sandbox for students to play in, where they can develop the skills to make a difference. Other student clubs, such as EcoCar, take on equally huge projects. EcoCar designs, builds and then races a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle each year in the Shell Ecomarathon. Clubs give students a space to fail (and try again), says mechanical engineering student and EcoCar project manager Rafid Khan. “A lot of what we do in the classroom is theoretical,” says Khan. “So with EcoCar, a huge focus is hands-on experience. If you want to draw something, draw it. And after you build it, you’ll probably find that it didn’t live up to your expectations. But you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to learn and you’re going to get better.” In the process, students also contribute to a lower carbon future. In April 2023, the EcoCar team will compete against hundreds of other student clubs in the Shell Ecomarathon, which brings together students from around the world to design, build and drive energy-efficient vehicles. But it was touch and go for a minute. The EcoCar team designs, builds and then races a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle each year in the Shell Ecomarathon From March 2020 to February 2021, like everything else, engineering clubs moved online. Focusing on a design-only focus, they were forced to manage project backlogs while losing active members and struggling to find new students to fill the gaps. Plus, the EcoCar competition has moved into the virtual space — not nearly as much fun as racing a car you built with your bare hands. “A big advantage for us is being able to give students hands-on experience in certain types of machinery or welding or carbon fiber fabrication,” says Khan. “It was hard to keep them together without it.” With attention elsewhere, team funding also suffered. “EcoCar started to see its corporate sponsorship wane at the start of COVID,” says Khan. AlbertaSat’s membership has declined during the pandemic. “We have an obligation to the Canadian Space Agency to fulfill and the project must be completed,” says Ganley. And these experiences affect students beyond the university. “I think of my work as an EcoCar, but in real life,” says Aishwarya Venkitachalam, ’20 BSc(MecEng), EcoCar alumna and current mechanical designer at Tesla. “I’m doing similar things at Tesla now, just on a much larger scale.” Venkitachalam, who served in various roles at EcoCar from 2016 to 2020, vividly remembers commuting from her co-op placement back to campus to work long nights at the club. But the experience allowed her to explore her creativity and gave her the confidence to choose a career in mechanical design. “My internship and career could not have happened without EcoCar,” says Venkitachalam. “Clubs give you what companies are looking for – not a superficial understanding of concepts, but a solid understanding that comes from practice. You will carry the experience throughout your career.” | By Kalyna Hennig Epp Kalyna is a reporter at the University of Alberta’s online magazine Folio. The University of Alberta is a publishing content provider partner of Troy Media. The views expressed by our columnists and contributors are solely their own and do not inherently or expressly reflect the views of our publication. © Troy MediaTroy Media is a provider of editorial content to media and its own community news agencies across Canada. Alberta Technology, Automotive, Automotive Technology, Career Information, Engineering, Innovation, Space
