amazin'

Later addition:

(dunno why formatting is screwed up, I apologize)
This is also amazin' & what I want to do with my life. No, not appear on TEDtalk though that'd be cool, but to design sustainable cities :] If that doesn't work out, there's always the heavy industries to fall back upon with twice the pay xD
Anyways,


Attending Shad and the internship afterwards has easily made this summer one of the most memorable, not to mention productive, ever. What better way to reminisce about all the events than the official shad blogs? :]
Today is my internship blog day and you deserve to hear more my experience than just complaints about sleep deprivation.

Just as four weeks of Shad went by in a flash, so did my four weeks of internship. As I'm finally use to waking up at the crack of dawn, suffering though the morning commute, and learning the countless three letter acronyms in the field of engineering, it's time to say goodbye.

My placement is at Cronos Consulting Group, a small search firm that specializes in the fields of science and engineering. The office is a very open environment, in fact, I remember being told on the first day to ask lots of questions, provide feedback, and especially to eavesdrop on the senior consultants conversations. Everyone is very outgoing and chatting with them over lunch is always a highlight of my day. However, my favourite part is the little wrap-up meeting we do before we all depart for home. Someone, usually my supervisor Afifa, reads an interesting piece of news article and we, as a team, discuss how it affects us as a business. It's like a leveled-up, way more awesome version of all those critical reading exercises that we do in school. Through these discussions, I learned about the field of engineering and how it interplays with politics and the economy.

My role at Cronos is to assist the senior consultants by scavenging the internet and finding appropriate talents with experiences relevant to each of our client's requirements. It's a lot harder than it sounds. This is my first "real" exposure to the engineering industry, and as I've mentioned, the jargons and technical terms sound like a foreign language! I&C, PLC, DCS, LCA, CFD, FEA, P&ID, PFD, LNG, that's just a sample of the more frequently used ones. I also had to be clever with my search terms and methods, luckily my supervisor provided me with sheets upon sheets of reference material. The task is also as rewarding as it is challenging, I've developed many transferable skills that will inevitably carry onto other areas of my life, such as knowing how to write a killer resume. In addition, having read through countless other successful engineer's experiences, I've developed a better idea of how to achieve my own career goals. Aside from my routine work, I was also assigned a special research project to do on next generation biofuels. It was tons of fun and the perfect chance to apply the research skills that I've accumulated over the month.

As I finish my second last day, I'd like to again thank everyone at Cronos, especially Afifa, Aliya, and Adam, for all the patient help and feedback they provided. Also thank you Shad Valley for connecting me to Cronos and making my 2011 summer one that I will never forget.

Read about the rest of placements over at the blog! I went through all the entries and couldn't believe how much shads were placed at Cronos' clients.

And entry about the actual program:

The topics of the day were Engineering and Medical Device Development. Both were extremely interesting and helpful as this year's project theme is designing a product for disabled Canadian children. The involvement of the amazing Spiderman in demonstrating the concepts of engineering was, well, amazing.

Rec time consisted of an intense game of ultimate frisbee. All the Shads got deeply involved in the game instantly, bringing out their competitive spirits.

In afternoon seminar, we were introduced to the principles of project management. A challenge of planning and building a tower from various office supplies was assigned. After much deliberation, my group finally triumphed(ish). Although I'm not sure how much of the principles I will remember, the activity definitely foreshadowed the challenges to come in our House projects.

Speaking of which, today I was particularly surprised at how productive House time was. My group had our fair share of debates during brainstorming sessions, but we managed to come up with several ideas to conduct further research on. It is going to be a challenging month ahead, but I'm sure that it will be an experience that we will all remember.

Again, posts from the rest of the shads over at the official blog.