A global tech journey that led me to Silicon Valley

Throughout my time studying mechanical and biomedical engineering at UBC, I tried my best to fill my days with travel and building. I lived in Germany for a year to work in the automotive industry and learn a new language. During my time in Germany, I founded a technical consultancy called Strive which created technical work experience for 55+ UBC students and continues to operate on campus.

For my next internship, I followed my interest in sustainability and worked in hydrogen strategy in Washington DC. Here, I learned a lot, but realized that big companies aren’t my thing. I then moved to Singapore supported by the Cansbridge Fellowship to help build an early stage tech startup alongside some accomplished serial entrepreneurs.

Toward the end of my degree, I started an AI company called Zeeno with fellow UBC students Enrique Moran and Sophie Berger, and managed to secure $840k CAD in funding from a top Silicon Valley investor to pursue the company full-time in San Francisco upon graduation.

Mechanical Engineering Program Options

How are you applying the skills you've learned?

I have taken many things away from my degree including a strong work ethic, the ability to run on small amounts of sleep, and guidance on how to start a company from my New Venture Design course. In addition to these general life skills, I did acquire a strong foundation of technical knowledge and one of the most satisfying ways I applied this was on a personal project.

I wanted to create something to help my long distance girlfriend and I stay connected between Canada and Germany. I built her a mechatronic stuffed bear with a robotic skeleton that could be controlled with a mobile app from any country in the world to give a firm hug. When I am on Facetime with her, and I see she is holding the bear, I tap a button in my app and the bear gives her a hug. This was one of the first times I applied my skills on a personal project and it was very satisfying.

How do you feel your degree has benefitted you compared to a different field of study?

In terms of my specialization within engineering, I am happy that I chose mechanical. I felt that MECH covers such a wide breadth of engineering that it set me up well for any type of challenge I want to pursue in the future.

Looking back, I would not have chosen anything other than engineering as my field of study. The most important takeaway from my degree was putting myself through a true challenge and coming through the other end. Engineering is lots of work but no pain, no gain ?. I was exposed to everything from tissue engineering, programming and thermodynamics to complex mathematics, and economics.

How did your studies in the Faculty of Applied Science prepare you for the future of work?

My degree did not teach me the quick way of doing things - it taught me the hard way.

We didn’t learn how to build an app with a pre-made machine learning model, we learned how to build a model from first principles. In the fast-paced world we live in, it is important to understand how to use quick tools to build things and get stuff done, but if you do not have the ability to work from first principles and do things the hard way, it will be impossible to push the boundaries of technology to create new innovations. During my degree it was sometimes frustrating that the course content was very theoretical, but I came to appreciate this when I started making my own projects.

Anyone can use pre-made models and tools to make things, but having a strong and broad theoretical background is rare and significantly expands your technical capabilities.