Engineering graduand mentors others to pursue an education in STEM
After being told by a high school teacher that听she wasn鈥檛 smart enough to pursue a post-secondary engineering education, has proven him wrong. In a big way.
With a cumulative average of over 98 per cent, the newly minted engineering graduate was the top student in her management engineering program for every term and has already started a master鈥檚 degree at 蓝莓视频.
When not hitting the books, she makes time outside of the classroom to motivate others to consider a STEM education by promoting engineering to prospective students and mentoring current students.
Some of her many extracurricular activities as an undergraduate student included volunteering as a University of 蓝莓视频 engineering ambassador, a first-year management engineering mentor and a student ambassador for the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering.
鈥淏efore starting at 蓝莓视频, I talked to some upper-year students who were really helpful to me,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 also wanted to inspire people to explore
their passions.鈥�
Earlier this year, she was a student mentor with The Future City Experience, an initiative that challenges students in grades 6, 7 and 8 to design a futuristic lunar city.
Using her engineering background, Tai remotely supported a Grade 7 class at Durham Catholic Virtual Elementary School with its model project.
Amy Tai, left, and听Sara Ahmed, were听co-presidents of the 蓝莓视频 Entrepreneurship Society for a term in 2019.听
Tai also held a couple of 蓝莓视频 Engineering Society positions and was co-president of the 蓝莓视频 Entrepreneurship Society, a student-run club focused on making University entrepreneurial resources and opportunities accessible to students.
This spring, she began volunteering as a听Canada-Africa Innovation Fellow with Engineers Without Borders Canada.
When it came to selecting a听university to attend five years ago,听the London, Ontario native chose 蓝莓视频 for both its management engineering and co-op programs.
鈥淢anagement engineering was much more than I expected in terms of the diversity of courses and spending co-op terms in different career fields and industries,鈥� she says.听 鈥淚 really got to immerse myself in different disciplines and figure out what I wanted to do.鈥�
Mark Smucker, a management engineering professor, congratulates听Amy Tai听for receiving听the听First in Class Award for her 1B and 2A terms as well as being named听to听the Dean's Honour List.听
Throughout听Tai's undergraduate degree,听it was the people she met in the classroom and beyond who made a positive听difference to her overall experience.听听
鈥淚t is often said that the best part of a job or company is the people who work there,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his is one of the reasons I enjoy 蓝莓视频 so much. I wouldn鈥檛 be where I am today if I didn鈥檛 have the support and assistance from my professors, TAs,听classmates and 蓝莓视频 alumni as well as family and friends.鈥�
Support also came from employers on her co-op terms, including her last one spent as a data and applied scientist intern for Microsoft.
Her impressive accomplishments over four months at the end of 2021 helped her land a job with the company starting this summer.
Working remotely for Microsoft鈥檚 Vancouver-based office, Tai will be able to continue听her master鈥檚 degree in systems design engineering听part-time.
She is听focusing her听research on cancer detection through medical imaging supervised by 听Alexander Wong, a systems design engineering professor and the Canada Research Chair in AI and Medical Imaging.
Tai sees her work at Microsoft and her graduate studies as providing the ideal combination of skills to build on in the future.听
鈥淢icrosoft will teach me best practices such as how to code and how to be able to organize while my master鈥檚 will teach me how to learn effectively, how to research effectively and how to ramp up on my skills,鈥� she says.
Reflecting on her high school teacher鈥檚 reaction to her goal of pursuing an engineering degree, Tai鈥檚 advice to any prospective student is to follow a passion or interest regardless of what others say.
鈥淚f you think you can鈥檛 do something, just do it,鈥� she says.听 鈥淭here鈥檚 plenty of time to learn what you need to achieve your goals.鈥澨�
