stu d e nt c h a pte r n ews
University of Alberta Industry Mixer
Summer Mentorship Program
The ITEUA was thrilled to reprise their annual spring “Student-Industry Mixer” event on April 28th, 2021 after needing to cancel in 2020. The Mixer aims to inform undergraduate and graduate students about the local transportation industry and to encourage them to interact with local professionals. Further, the event provides an opportunity to showcase different organizations’ current projects, talk with students, and learn more about ITE. The 2021 event was sponsored by 9 companies/organizations; the City of Edmonton, APEGA, AECOM, Watt Consulting Group, Stantec, Dialog Design, Associated Engineering, Toole Design, and ISL Engineering. We created a private Discord server to provide a centralized platform for the event; each company sponsor was provided with a dedicated space for small social conversations while permitting attendees to easily drop-in and drop-out. We’ve received great feedback from both sponsors and student attendees that this structure greatly improved the atmosphere over using typical video conferencing software.
At the start of July, we kicked off 5 pairs of industry mentors and student mentees in our annual summer program. Our program consists of a sign-up and matching process, a program handbook with guidelines and suggested monthly meeting frequency with discussion prompts. ITEUA hopes that our mentees can use this one-on-one process to foster local connections and learn more about what a practicing transportation professional does post graduation.
Departing Instructor Thank you event At the University of Alberta, Dr. Amy Kim has instructed transportation engineering students for nearly 10 years and has recently transferred to work at the UBC. On behalf of the current student body, and alumni of the program at UofA, the ITEUA organized a small thank you event on June 18th. We collected more than 20 messages of appreciation and gratitude that were then delivered in a small gift package. Dr. Kim joined us for a quick video chat that included alumni across the country. Our colleagues at UBC ITE are lucky to have her join their program.
53
TRANSPORTATION TALK | SUMMER 2021
Also check out a recap of the University of Alberta Student Presentation Competition held in February on page 23.
