The best part about ESEC is seeing how leaders of industry and academia carved their own path. Naomi Ginsberg was my favourite speaker at ESEC 2018 . Her journey from EngSci to grad school to teaching chemistry and doing research with improving image capture in microscope at UC Berkeley taught me to appreciate unexpected opportunities. Her story inspired me to be open to different EngSci majors and I switched into a major I would have never considered in my first year. 

ESEC was an amazing opportunity to gain some insight into choosing a career path and I was particularly moved by Kristen Facciol's talk. Though I have zero interest in aerospace, it was empowering to hear her story and that it's okay to not know exactly what you want to do and just to be open to new and interesting experiences as they present themselves and that you'll find your way as you go. Still to this day, I wonder what I'm doing in EngSci and what I'm going to do after all this, but she's inspired me to continue being passionate about what I'm learning and to let that drive me and my career forward. 

In first year, I felt a lot of doubt and anxiety about what to major in and what opportunities were available for me after Eng Sci. I didn't know how I would apply the things I learned in the real world. ESEC eased a lot of my fears and the speakers were very inspirational. Kristen Facciol's talk resonated with me in particular. She spoke about her personal experiences and challenges in Eng Sci and NASA. We were also provided a great opportunity to network and receive advice from leaders of their respective fields. I'm very grateful for the guidance I received at ESEC 2020. 

I really enjoyed attending and volunteering with ESEC in my first two years of university. I was also fortunate enough to be the director of ESEC in my third year, an experience which I greatly enjoyed. Even though I had no experience in the medical field, I was able to connect with Dr. Arthur Slutsky at ESEC 2019, who was the VP of Research at St. Michael's Hospital. We discussed machine learning applications in healthcare, and from this conversation, I ended up doing my PEY at St. Michael's Hospital. I got to work on a lot of interesting projects and had a fantastic experience! 

I attended ESEC in my first year dead-set on choosing the Aerospace option, but after hearing several captivating talks, (which made me realize how little I truly knew about the EngSci majors), I discovered a new and unpredicted interest in the Robotics option. Through the mixer held after the event I was also able to personally talk to several of the speakers, in particular the Aerospace speaker, an incredibly accomplished alum, Kristen Facciol, from whom I learned what aerospace truly looks like in industry. I am still in touch with her to this day and consider her a mentor on my new journey towards pursuing Robotics, all thanks to my attendance in ESEC 2020.

The speakers at ESEC were extremely passionate and experienced in their fields which really inspired me. ESEC was also a great chance to see beyond the academia of EngSci and everything it has to offer in my future career. It made me excited for the future but also gave me a glimpse into the possible majors I really am excited to pursue! 

ESEC is a great opportunity for EngSci students (especially first and second years) to learn about cutting edge innovations in areas they are interested in, as well as gaining exposure to other fields they haven't considered. For instance, although I was less interested in Biomedical Engineering, I still learned a great deal about the application of Internet of Things in hospitals from the talk by Aviv Gladman, the ESEC 2020 speaker for Biomedical Systems. 

ESEC was an incredibly fun and meaningful experience! It was especially interesting to learn about the different engineering fields through leaders in academia and industry. One of my favourite speakers was Prof. Jessica Burgner-Kahrs, whose research on continuum robots peaked my interest and encouraged me to pursue further studies in robotics, which is a field that I would not have necessarily considered otherwise. 

As a first-year student, ESEC was an enjoyable and amazing opportunity to learn more about all the different fields outside academia. Listening to all the different stories, was very inspiring, and encouraged me to learn more about the fields. As a student considering the Energy Systems specialization, listening to Dr. Damian Frost talk about his company Brill Power, developing state-of-the-art smart batteries, furthered my passion for sustainable energy. I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity obtained at ESEC 2021, to be inspired and learn from leaders around the world.