Hometown: Hensall, Ontario
Program of Study: Software Engineering, Level 4
Why McMaster? I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do after high school, but I know liked math and science, and thought that engineering would be a good fit. After looking into it (and after the general first year at Mac), I decided on Software Engineering. Honestly, a big factor in me choosing McMaster was the Schulich Scholarship and the financial security it brought, but having gone for three years now, I'm glad I made the choice. Not only is the campus beautiful, but the sense of community is amazing and I've met plenty of fantastic professors that have helped me on my path to academic success.
List of extra-curriculars, research involvement and/or co-op placements! I worked two summers for Dr. Smith as an Undergraduate Summer Research Assistant, working on a software framework called Drasil. The heartbeat behind Drasil is encoding information in a way that is traceable and reusable to improve the maintainability, organization, and simplicity of the software development process by allowing the same information to be used in all software artifacts (code, specification documentation, test cases). I also did a half-TA position for Dr. Smith for SWFRENG 2AA4, which was a deeply rewarding and enjoyable experience! I also play keyboard (and occasionally drums/cajón) for the worship team at LIFT Church.
Best thing about the Schulich Scholarship? The biggest and most obvious perk of being a Schulich Scholar is the financial security it brings, so I don't have to worry as much about how I'm going to fund my education and can focus more on the education itself. It has also helped as a resume booster and has come up as a talking point in a few interviews, and has allowed me to meet other Schulich Scholars; one of my best friends from Mac is also a Schulich Scholar, and is also in Soft Eng, and we first met when he recognized me from the Schulich website!
Proudest McMaster Accomplishment? I think my proudest achievement at McMaster is winning second place for overall hack at DeltaHacks VI. Me and a team (two of which we met upon arriving at the hackathon) made a prototype of a library seat tracker that would allow students to visit a website from home and see, in realtime, how full/empty a library is (to better assess whether or not it's worth it to make the trek over to campus, etc.); we used an ultrasonic sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi to detect if a seat was taken, a MongoDB database to store the data from the sensor, an ML model to predict the expected availability for the next hour, and a website (written with JavaScript and HTML) to display the current availability. This project required us to quickly learn a lot of new technologies and integrate them within 24 hours, which proved challenging and a little bit stressful, but ultimately rewarding.
Advice to a future student? The biggest advice I would give would be to put yourself out there, especially in your first few weeks at university. As a massive introvert, I was really worried about getting to know people, but during Welcome Week, I had a sense of freedom to strike up conversations with random people (everyone was on the same page of "starting over", so what was there to lose?) and I was able to connect with a bunch of people over common interests (board games, music, video games, general shenanigans and tomfoolery, more games, Shrek, lots of games) that I'm still good friends with. Don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone; it's a lot easier to dip from a club later on that to try to join one with established cliques while juggling a class/exam/work/stress schedule; get involved in stuff that interests you, and do it as early as possible. Also, don't buy textbooks until you know FOR SURE that you need them.
Hopes and plans for the future? I hope to graduate with the skills needed to impact the software of the world in a way that benefits society as a whole. What this definition means has changed a lot; coming out of high school, I thought that game development would be a "waste", but since playing certain video games (Undertale, OneShot, OFF), consuming other media (Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Homestuck, The Adventure Zone) and playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends, I have a greater appreciation for video games as an art and the impact that stories can have on individuals and by extension society. Regardless, my primary goal is to create something that helps people, whether financially, physically, spiritually, mentally, or whatever, that is meaningful by some measure of the word and will last after I'm gone.