IT IS CRITICAL TO CONTINUE PROMOTING STEM EDUCATION IN ORDER TO DRAW THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST OF OUR YOUTH TO ENGINEERING PROFESSION AND OUR INDUSTRY.
Innovation Station Engineering Your Life (ISEYL) is an event that is near and dear to my heart which I and my team continue to organize every year!
It all started with a report suggesting, “Experts estimate that by 2020, approximately 95,000 of those engineers will reach retirement, there simply isn’t enough talent to replace retiring engineers”. This got us thinking about what we can do to bring awareness about engineering. What does a professional engineer do? This was a popular question in Windsor-Essex in 2010 that isn’t asked nearly as much anymore, due to the success of our event.
We took a look back at PEO’s mandate, its roots, and what it wanted to achieve as an end goal. By bringing forward public awareness and understanding, we hoped to encourage a general audience, from students to engineering graduates, to become licensed professional engineers. We began answering this question by developing what become “Innovation Station: Engineering Your Life”, which has quickly become our premier public interaction event.
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It began with an idea to bring a visual representation of engineering to the public. Could we bring in companies to show displays, tools and inventions, staff knowledge, and end products to show what engineering is all about?
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We’ve achieved tremendous success on this front. Every year since 2011, we’ve set up at Devonshire Mall, the 8th busiest shopping centre in Canada. The weekend introduces and deconstructs the world of engineering to the public and demonstrates first-hand the work that engineers perform.
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This day of fun and excitement focuses on providing our youth with a glimpse of engineering and its applications. Analogous to the past, key players of engineering and technology and our traditional partners, including OACETT, St. Clair College, University of Windsor, Canada South Science City, Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, and FIRST Robotics, will make this event continue to be a success. New partners include Mad Science and SchoolHouse Chess.
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The results are upfront and quantifiable – more interest, more engineering students at the university, and, most notably, fewer questions of what a professional engineer does now that we’ve reached our tenth year. We look forward to future years and furthering the enhancement of our profession, as this event has accomplished so far.
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- Dr. S Asif Khan, P.Eng.,
Founding member and Organizing Chair ISEYL
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"Celebrating its 11th year, the ISEYL event at Devonshire Mall on October 14th and 15th, 2023, was a resounding success. With 130+ students and 60 teams in the 9th Bridge Busting Competition, this flagship event sparks engineering curiosity in students of all ages. Since 2011, ISEYL has inspired thousands of young minds, showcasing collective efforts to shape a more innovative tomorrow. I appreciate more and more people joining us yearly in fostering a passion for engineering and building bridges to a brighter future! "~ Dr. Sardar Asif Khan, P.Eng
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Spark the the Future: Dive into Incredible Clips of Young Innovators and Engineers!
Some of the Innovation Station pictures from previous years!
