"If I were to give back the regretful experience, I would also have to give back the lesson learned from it.“
Preeyansh Arora Majoka
- Degree: Bachelor of Applied Science
- Program:
- Campus: Okanagan
- Year: 2nd year
Even before setting my foot on this campus, a 17-year-old me had already found a major win by getting into UBC Engineering. The next month, I received a mail stating that I received two entrance scholarships. I had to read the email multiple times to believe that it was true and legitimate, that I really did receive the award. I very clearly remember the day, I was at school and waited for school to end to call my parents. It was a moment of madness, happiness, and very close to my heart. I am grateful that I got a great opportunity to kickstart my university journey as a UBC Engineering student. Students who are considering UBC Engineering should know that there are many open doors and opportunities to take you to where you want to be. Have the courage to push that door open, enjoy the adventure, and you will have a lovely story to look back on.
How did you decide your current UBC Engineering discipline, or why did you choose UBC Engineering?
The art behind how objects are made fascinates me: even the smallest and simplest screw is made using a number of planned-out processes. This fascination led me to decide that Manufacturing Engineering is where I belong. While I have not started my second year yet, I had the opportunity to meet with the head of Manufacturing Engineering in an information session organized by UBC Engineering. We all had pizzas, learned about manufacturing and it ended with a tour of the manufacturing engineering labs. Another deciding factor for me was the vast practical applications that this specialization had to offer. The opportunities in the field of manufacturing will never die out as this secondary sector is the intermediate stage to provide humankind with everything in our world.
What has made your time at UBC Engineering memorable?
The first-year curriculum had some of the coolest professors and fun projects that helped me apply in-class learnings. The projects that we were given in our Engineering Design class were the highlight of my first year of engineering experience at UBC. It was beautiful how in just two months, a completely alien application called "SolidWorks" became so familiar to so many of us. Students started out learning to make small cubes and by the end of the term, everyone had awesome designs of futuristic vehicles and breakdowns of Fortnite objects. It was a great opportunity where I made some amazing friends while collaborating on projects together. My most important lesson was learning to analyze objects in 100 different ways and thinking of their applications, and I am excited for more experiences like this in the rest of my engineering study at UBC.
Tell us about your experience in your program. What have you learned that is most valuable?
One of the major learnings besides academics that I have grasped here at UBC Okanagan is effective teamwork. Teams collaborate much better when there are efficient communication and proper work distribution among the team members. I have found myself in a better situation in almost every collaborative project ever since I learned these principles. I also had a more enjoyable learning experience while working on projects with classmates.
What resources or events organized by UBC Engineering have helped you in your academic, professional or entrepreneurial journey thus far?
UBC Engineering has numerous resources to offer to assist in students' academic success. I have personally gained a lot from office hours of professors, this was helpful in gaining confidence as a newcomer on this campus. I took assistance from the free tutoring sessions to clarify my doubts and get a head start on certain concepts that I initially found challenging. For course planning and to help me make my decision about choosing my engineering discipline, I found the information session and various informative emails containing important links very helpful.
What is one piece of advice you would share to a student entering UBC Engineering?
Some previous knowledge of coding would surely come in handy. I did not take a computer science-related courses during high school. APSC 177 (Okanagan Campus) or APSC 160 (Vancouver Campus) is a coding-related course in first-year that educate you about basic coding principles, and help you build your first simple game. I initially struggled with the new information, however, the professor and teaching assistants were always there to help me. Another piece of advice that I would give is to never hesitate to ask a question to your professors or teaching assistants, no matter how simple it may be to others.
We are committed to UBC’s vision of “a community in which human rights are respected, and equity and inclusion are embedded in all areas of academic, work and campus life.” What opportunities have you had to respectfully engage with leadership?
I had the chance to study APSC 169 - Fundamentals of Sustainable Engineering Design, a design-related course teaching us the design planning processes. In this course, our professor told us that we would be doing a collaborative project in which every single team member will have a leadership role. This made me realize how the CEO is not the only leader in a company but just one of the leaders representing one department in a company. This course gave me the opportunity to collaborate with four other engineering students as we learned to take responsibility for our own parts of the project just like a leader needs to.
