1% Inspiration

We met Peter Serles, a PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering, when he 3D printed the CNano Tower, Canada’s Smallest Freestanding Structure and shared a photo of it with the University of Toronto's Research Revealed gallery. During this episode, we talk about translating scientific ideas into useful applications or policy, the importance of a growth mindset, the tech stack of a researcher, the strange quantum behaviour of nanoscale materials, the similarities between varsity sports and the scientific profession, and why working in university governance makes life easier as a student.

Mickael Dang (Current PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto) set an expansive tone for the conversation when he told us "I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I tried everything." We talk about his transition from medical school to research and biomedical sciences, trying out law school, eventually stumbling upon biomedical and bioengineering at Harvard Medical School with Prof. Jeff Karp, which led him to completing his PhD here in Toronto under Prof. Molly Shoichet, and building his own PCR testing startup.

We also talk about the challenges of being an international student (also, some cultural differences/shocks), why completing a PhD is a lot like being an entrepreneur, work-life balance, and how he has explored making difficult tradeoffs between personal interests and job/financial security at pivotal points of his career.

Welcome to 1% Inspiration, a University of Toronto Engineering based podcast about how to make the most of your STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and learning community right from the source.

Come join conversations uncovering the stories behind the milestones and successes of our guests - students, professors, and community members of U of T and beyond to demystify how they became technologists, researchers, advocates and builders moving our world forward today.

We share these stories of excellence so you can explore how you might follow in their footsteps, and humanize what success looks like for you. Under the show notes of each episode, you can find resources that we talk about that have helped our guests make the most of their learning community

Grab your favourite warm drink, and let's share an honest conversation. Subscribe now for updates.

Today’s guest is David (Duh-veed) Boroto an Engineering Science Infrastructure 2018 + PEY graduate from the University of Toronto. As he describes himself on his Medium blog, (in the show notes), he's an infrastructure nerd, global development nut and social impact practitioner. In our conversation, we talked about challenges with global development, reflecting on personal failure, and shared resources on how to get involved with global development in undergraduate and after.

As a graduate student in Industrial Engineering, Bella’s conducted research at the Interactive Media Lab at University of Toronto, building skills in quality improvement, user experience in healthcare, and product management. In this episode, Bella talks about her philosophy of work, managing a team, and product design. By viewing her life as a continuous process and always being open to growth (and giving us constant book and podcast recommendations), Bella showed us what a true life long learner is.

During our talk, Hamza said “research is one of his favorite things to talk about.” He shared his interest in energy system design and optimism for sustainable technology in the future. We took a deep dive in Hamza’s experience through summer research at the Ready Lab at the University of Toronto, leading engineering design teams, and his Professional Experience Year Co-op (PEY) at Hanon Systems to learn more about Hamza’s journey.

Ben's biggest rule for education has been to “hack your degree” - taking the time to think thoughtfully and systematically about how he spent his years of undergraduate education. This began from when he chose his undergraduate program in life sciences at Victoria College, to his consistent involvement with the Hart House Debate Team, which he connects deeply to data science as both mediums of persuasion. TEDxUofT is a big part of our talk - and he had many TED talk recommendations for us.

When Ben experienced a turning point learning data science and statistics through computational application at Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, he positioned himself for a career in data science while using his existing humanities, social sciences, and sciences background as a strength. We speak about his continued self-initiating tendencies while at Harvard, publishing articles, and engaging in scientific communication independently.

At 15, when she won a youth science competition Netra said “It's my life-long goal to be a cancer researcher.”

Our conversation helped uncover a bit of what led to this self-empowerment in her career and life. We began with her experience conducting genomics research in high school, leading her to the Engineering Science program at U of T, leading the enormous growth of the Club for Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering (CUBE) and conducting research across borders. Knowing her enabling goal was always to be on the pathway of earning a PhD, we also realize the importance of asking insightful questions (and how this is often half the job) in graduate school, and how differences in agency have changed her perspective of graduate school versus undergrad.

Newly introduced in this episode is a lightning ground of questions where we explore Netra’s alternate profession, her biggest mistake, what drives her, and the small pleasures in life she appreciates.

We have a great conversation about Laura Berneaga’s entry to Engineering from a high school co-op experience at St. Michael’s Hospital, her biomedical engineering research origin story, and how her role as President of EngSoc came to be. We reminisce over her numerous leadership experiences (notably the Undergraduate Engineering Research Day), and talk about her time re-teaching herself how to code in grad school - and why life is a lot like debugging code.

In this epic 3 hour long conversation, Dr. Burke (or Mikhail) talks about his entire school and professional life from high school graduation to where he is now , the co-instructor of the Engineering & Social Justice Course and Dean’s Advisor on Black Inclusivity Initiatives at U of T FASE. We talk about his familial roots at U of T, feeling out of place at Skule before forging a community - NSBE, importance of the lab culture in a research experience, how he chose grad school, and his PhD experience of working at a satellite U of T hospital. Through this conversion, we discussed the idea of privilege and how it can affect one's pathways, the importance of building a learning experience focusing on objectives not grades, and how we can make research more accessible to the underrepresented communities.

A theme we loved during this conversation was Mikhail’s propensity to question the status quo - beyond research. After earning a PhD at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at U of T, he combined his academic training with his long-term interests of empowering learning and creating pathways by continuing in his current work in inclusive pedagogy and higher education.