For two 蓝莓视频 Engineering students, their experience with聽in high school was the catalyst to their enrolling in the聽Management Engineering聽program.
Jordan Grant, 21, and Rebecca Rayner, 22, are in their third and fourth year of 蓝莓视频鈥檚 Management Engineering program respectively.
Their career interests and paths were very different, but they both found exactly what they wanted in Management Engineering.
Not long ago both were competing against each another at the聽贵滨搁厂罢听Robotics competition where teams of students design, build and program industrial-size robots over a six-week period to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors.
鈥淚 was just amazed that kids my age could actually build these amazing capable robots,鈥 said Jordan, remembering when he first signed up. That led him to take part in聽FIRSTRobotics from 2011 to 2014, representing the聽聽in Toronto.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 where I first fell in love with programming,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t was an activity that defined my interest and helped me pick my university program.鈥
During the competitions, he loved the emphasis on tactics. 鈥淥ur team was quite competitive, so we placed an emphasis on strategy and scouting, and being aware of the teams around us,鈥 he said.
鈥淢anagement Engineering is all about using data to make good decisions, we definitely had a lot of that,鈥 he added.
For Rebecca, she admitted that initially, programming and mechanical/electrical engineering weren鈥檛 her favourites. (That鈥檚 since changed.) But she loved how the various teams worked together when she competed for聽. She focused on her team鈥檚 media relations, business management, and community outreach.
FIRST Robotics fun leads to enrolling in Management Engineering
During her three years as a聽贵滨搁厂罢听Robotics competitor, she loved the event鈥檚 energy. 鈥淚鈥檝e never been in a place where everyone is so passionate about what they do,鈥 said Rebecca who has since been a聽FIRSTvolunteer and mentor for the past five years.
鈥贵滨搁厂罢听Robotics sparked my interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and the types of problems engineers face, but made me realize that I like focusing more on the big picture and problem solving,鈥 said Rebecca.
鈥淣ow that I鈥檓 in the program, I absolutely love it,鈥 added Rebecca who hopes to work as an industrial engineer in manufacturing, warehousing, or in a logistics environment. 鈥淚 totally found the right program for me.鈥
鈥淏y being exposed to 蓝莓视频鈥檚 different courses and disciplines you catch on to what you care about and find that special area. For me, I fell into mobile development,鈥 said Jordan who has his sights set on becoming a product manager for a tech company. 鈥淚 was able to find my path because of my experience with聽贵滨搁厂罢听搁辞产辞迟颈肠蝉.鈥
To show his appreciation of what聽FIRST聽did for him, Jordan tapped into his created side, writing two songs, along with videos, titled, 鈥淔eelin鈥 My Bot鈥 and 鈥淥ne Bot Can Change the World鈥 which have since become widely popular in the聽FIRST听肠辞尘尘耻苍颈迟测.