End of Summer 2016 Semester

Students Writing Final Exams

We have reached the end of the summer 2016 semester. And students were busy doing final reviews and preparations for the final exams. Just like any other previous semester, this semester arrived and went really quickly. It was just like we barely started and suddenly, we are at the end. But, the preMasters program has not end yet. We started the first lectures on week three of the semester. So, the last week for the preMasters program will be next week.

Students Focusing on Exams

At the end of each semester, students will spend the last week of the semester writing exams. I have volunteered to supervise several exams this time round. Including my own course exams, I have a total of thirteen final exams and final presentations to invigilate and supervise within these two weeks. During this time of the semester, the campus library will almost be full and even the dining halls will have students doing overnighters. Some professors continue to support their students right to the eve of exams and the Discovery 1's atrium can be seen to be as busy as usual with students attending these extra office hours.

In full concentration

With the end of semester, especially after the final exam, many international students will leave for home and taking a well deserved two weeks vacation. I will probably see them only on the second week of September when they return for the new semester. During which time, the campus is going to be quiet for a while. The parking lots empty and echoes in the hallways. Time for me to get ready for my own vacation and also prepare for the new semester.

Summer 2016 Engineering Fair

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The Engineering Fair for the ENSC100 students to showcase their end of semester engineering prototypes was held in the SFU's Discovery 1 Atrium today. More than a dozen teams participated in the engineering fair this semester. Among others, the teams get to display and present their inventions to an enthusiastic crowd. Nearly all of the students' inventions involved quiet a bit of programming work which would have been time consuming by itself. On top of that, building the actual prototype and incorporating all the different features into one system also requires substantial team effort and individual commitment. Overall, the students did manage to put up fairly good presentations.

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Also, the students have to finance the acquisition of the components to build the prototypes. Some of these prototypes were much more costly to build than others. Therefore, it was obvious that some had better components than others. Particularly in this class the prototype concepts may be fairly simple but there was a distinguishable gap in effort, skill and ability seen among the prototypes on display. Every semester the students that enrolled in this class will have this engineering fair to present their engineering feat to the rest of the FIC community. It is very encouraging to see these early stage engineers being so enthusiastic and passionate towards their creations.

Summer 2016 ENSC100 Class

There were many other instructors that visited the fair that gave really good encouragements to the engineering students too. I took upon myself to visit every one of the displays. I also gave positive feedback and constructive critique based on business point of view. At the end of each stop, I congratulated each of the participating team for their efforts. But I did not see any team that particularly stood out among their peers. As expected from an entry level engineering course the students were kind of equal in many aspects of engineering. But as they move on to higher level engineering courses, they will develop better understanding and skills.