Fourth-year Mathematics and Engineering (Apple Math) student Siobhan Powell is whip-smart, academically talented and interested in a research field with great currency. She’s capping a very successful undergraduate career at Queen’s University this spring but grad school wasn’t always a foregone conclusion for her.

“I didn’t plan on going when I first came here,” says Ms. Powell. “I remember, in first year when we had to choose our streams, specifically asking people about Apple Math: ‘Do you have to go to grad school or can you go directly into industry?’ because that’s what I thought I wanted to do.”

After second year, she took a summer job in corporate finance. Ms. Powell recalls the experience as an interesting challenge but one that ultimately helped her decide that business was not where her passions lay. Rather, she felt drawn to the research and development ­of renewable energy technologies. For the summer after third year, Queen’s professor Abdol-Reza Mansouri recommended her for a research internship at Inria (L’Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique) in France. There she worked with a group on the interpretation of data signals from MRI machines.

“I spent the first month catching up on all the literature and talking to the PhD students about their projects,” she says. “A three-month summer is very short but I got a taste of the lifestyle and what it’s like to do research.”

That experience, coupled with her own investigation into the fields that hold special interest to her, finally led to the conclusion that research and graduate studies are right for her.

“I developed a strong interest in wave energy and tidal energy,” she says. “I also learned that, for all the leading-edge jobs in that field, you need more than a bachelor’s degree.”

So, armed with a strong transcript and a list of researchers with similar interests, she started the application process. She applied to five of the most prestigious universities in the world, earning and settling on a spot at Stanford University in California.

“The professor is doing really interesting work and was really nice so I thought we would get along well,” says Ms. Powell. “The graduate students really like him and I got better funding for Stanford than any of the other schools. That turns out to be a big factor, too.”

So after a summer of family, rest and travel, Powell is off to her next grand adventure. To anyone considering grad school, she has three pieces of advice:

“First would be to start everything really early,” she says. “It all happens so quickly but you can find out what essays you need to write really far in advance so, if you pick a program early and start writing, you won’t have to during midterms in November.

“Another is that the professors at Queen’s are very happy to help. I needed six references for one application so I talked to a lot of faculty and they’re all so supportive. I felt bad asking them to send so many letters but they were very helpful. I turned to them a lot for advice.

“Finally, I’d say to be ambitious. I never thought I could get into Oxford or Cambridge or these places that sound all very far away and fancy but they want people like us to go there so they’ll pick us and it will be great,” she says with a smile. “I wasn’t very confident applying to these places and I should have been more so. So be ambitious.”

A new summer program being offered by the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science is aimed at introducing high school students to what Queen’s Engineering offers as well as the wide range of possibilities available in the engineering profession.

The Queen’s Engineering Academy Guided Experience (EngAGE) is a two-week program that will expose participants to four of the main engineering disciplines at Queen’s – Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Computing, and Mechanical.

While there are similar programs offered at other universities, what differentiates EngAGE, explains Engineering Outreach Coordinator Scott Compeau, is that the participants will actually be able to take advantage of some of the state-of-the-art research facilities at Queen’s, such as the OTTER Lab, Pilot Plant, and the Coastal Lab. This is hands-on learning and exploration.

“We are trying to showcase the research being done and the facilities that the university has to offer, to give the participants a really good look at what the disciplines are like,” Scott says.

He adds that professors and graduate students from the various disciplines who are involved will also introduce the students to the engineering design process as well as the broad range of career options.

With a Master’s degree specializing in Engineering Education with a thesis on high school students’ perception of engineering, Mr. Compeau is an ideal person to lead the program. He is aware of the stereotypes that are out there and the misperceptions that most high school students have about engineering. This program is designed to dispel those myths, excite the participants, and ”engage” them in considering pursuing engineering, he says.

The program is for students entering grades 10 to 12 but there are no requirements in terms of having taken courses such as chemistry and physics. The aim of EngAGE is to challenge and inform the students without being technically overwhelming.

The program is loosely modeled on what the faculty currently offers undergraduate students, particularly those heading into second year.

“My view is that if we can take the type of projects that we are doing with undergraduate students which are deemed important by Engineers Canada and to the profession, then why not try to bring some of those concepts down to an earlier age. Therefore, these high schoolers who are considering engineering will have a better view on what the profession is all about, and they will be better prepared to study it,” he says.

The first week of the EngAGE program starts with a General Engineering Challenge on the first day. The student then will be introduced to Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering. The second week starts with another General Engineering Challenge followed by modules on Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The first offering of the program is set for July 18-29 and the second runs Aug. 8-19.

There is an option to stay in residence with full supervision and meals as well as a day program. Participants can also register for a single week.

For more information visit the Engineering Outreach website or contact eng.connections@queensu.ca.

For the past two Homecomings, Fraser Horn (Sci‘89) drove from Toronto to Kingston in his 100 per cent electric Tesla Model S. He was able to just make it to Kingston but had trouble finding adequate charging for his trip home. After last year’s Homecoming, Mr. Horn sent an email to Principal Daniel Woolf .

“I wrote to Principal Woolf suggesting that there ought to be an electric car charger on campus. I told him I thought universities should be at the forefront of sustainable projects,” says Mr. Horn.

Principal Woolf connected him with the Sustainability Office to explore the idea of installing an electric car charger on campus. Mr. Horn, an electrical engineer and stay-at-home father, made an initial $4,000 pledge. So began the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Sustainability Initiative.

As Sustainability Manager Aaron Ball explains, this initiative fits perfectly with Queen’s goal of creating a sustainable campus by increasing support for alternative modes of transportation. 

“We want to break down the barriers to alternate transportation. For example, more people will ride their bikes if there are lots of bike racks on campus. As electric cars become more popular as an alternate form of transportation, installing a charger on campus will break down another barrier,” says Mr. Ball.

In Kingston there is an electric car charging station near Hwy. 401 at Division Street, one on Princess Street at the Best Western and another at St. Lawrence College, but because of the hours it can take to charge, it’s really only practical to have a charger at your destination, which for Mr. Horn was downtown and the Queen’s University campus. It is logical and fitting that Queen’s, with its highly-respected engineering program that encourages discovery and invention of sustainable products and green initiatives, leads the way in this initiative. 

The two electric vehicle charging stations will be located at the corner of Union and Division streets, in front of the School of Kinesiology, where they will be “visible, accessible, and where we easily can connect to a building to get the power,” says Mr. Ball. They will be used by Queen’s employees and visitors to campus.

The cost of installing the two chargers on campus is $30,000. While Mr. Horn’s initial gift to the program is a good start, more donations are required to make this goal a reality. 

“I’m reaching out to my classmates and others who feel the same way I do, that Queen’s needs to encourage the adoption of sustainable practices,” says Mr. Horn. “I do a lot of driving with my three busy children, so I see the positive impact of using a sustainable and cleaner means to get around.”

He adds: “Things like this may feel small, especially if only one or two individuals are doing it, but collectively, I know, we can make a big difference. The lack of charging infrastructure is one of the biggest barriers to electric vehicle ownership but because electricity is everywhere it’s a relatively easy problem to solve.”

To contribute to the EV Charging Station project, visit givetoqueens.ca/sustainableengineering.