The question I get asked most as an orientation leader or by new to UBC students is regarding extracurriculars. And a typical extracurricular for engineering students is being part of a student design team. Here, I answer all your questions regarding UBC engineering design teams, from basic questions like level of commitment, application process, to more subjective questions, such as why join a design team, and the pros and cons of joining a design team in first year vs. later on.
What do you do in an engineering design team?
A UBC design team is like a technical version of a sports team. Throughout the year, your team works together to build a specialized engineering project (e.g., race car) that you will use to compete against other similar teams (e.g., race car teams) from other universities at the end of the year. You even have jerseys/team shirts!
Just like there are different sports, there are a variety of different design teams like Formula UBC, which makes a race car, UBC Steel bridge, which makes a steel bridge, and UBC Rocket, which makes rockets, etc. A team is usually multi-disciplinary, with sub-teams like mechanical, electrical, software, etc. Teams usually meet every week in their own workspace/room in the Engineering Design Centre. Check out the full list of UBC engineering design teams.
What kind of commitment should I expect to make?
This varies a lot by team. For example, Rocket meets roughly the whole day Saturday from morning to late afternoon while teams like SUBC or Thunderbots meet 2-5 hours per week. Most teams will tell you their meeting times on the application. Besides the meetings, some teams will expect you to finish tasks in your own time while others won’t. You could get more clarification on this during the interview.
Why join an engineering design team?
This is a really good question to ask yourself. Why should I spend all this additional time working on technical stuff when I’m already doing it in school everyday? For me, the main reason for joining a design team was getting the experience for an internship/co-op. For the first coop, most of your peers won’t have work experience, and will have the same class projects as you. So design team experience will really set you apart. I was able to get my first co-op job because of my design team experience—they were looking for someone who worked with Python, which is the software language I use for my design team. Plus, Python is not taught in class, so having experience in Python at the top of my resume helped me get the interview.
Which engineering design team are you on, and do you like it?
I’m currently a part of the software team of UBC Unmanned Aircraft Systems (autonomous drones). The electrical/mechanical sub teams make the drone itself, while we write the code for the autonomous control and relaying of information (pictures taken from the drones, coordinates, etc) from the drone to a server. The software is written mostly in Python, with some JavaScript for the front-end.
For a software team, the dynamics may be different from what you’d expect from a traditional engineering discipline student team. Unlike the mechanical or electrical engineering groups on our team where you have to do a lot of collaboration and hands-on work, we mostly work on individual tasks, and ask others for help when we’re stuck. So we work individually during design team meetings from 10-1, have an hour team lunch, and then go back to working 2-4.
I do enjoy going to my design team because I get to work on somewhat interesting stuff that is related to my field. I was really excited about the Unmanned Systems Canada competition this year in Manitoba where we compete with other schools in Canada, but it was postponed to next year due to COVID-19.
How do I join one?
All teams are looking for lots of new members in September, and some in January of term 2. You can go to UBC's official list of engineering design teams and navigate into each design team’s website for the application form. If you’re planning to join a design team in first year, make sure you apply in September! When I was trying to apply to teams in term 2 of first year, it was really difficult since not a lot of teams were hiring, and since competition is nearing, they were looking for more experienced students who can immediately contribute to the project.
During Imagine day (the first day of school), design teams will have booths down main mall, so check them out if you’re interested!
What does the application process look like? Any tips?
Usually, you apply online first. Some teams will directly take you based on the application, while others will invite you in for an interview. Interviews are really short ~15 minutes, and the questions are what you’d expect: why this team, any relevant experience, etc. Prepare for the interview as you would for a job interview and do some research on the team.
I remember one of the interviews:
“So, do you have any skills?”
“Uh…nope”
“...”
I can’t believe I said that. Don’t be like me and remember to prepare!
Should I join a design team first year or later on?
In first year, most of my peers were part of design teams. But I definitely stood my ground -- that I would wait until 2nd year when I’ve been put into a specialization and learned enough to actively participate. There are arguments for both:
The Great Debate: Joining a Team First Year vs. Later On
First year: exposed to different specializations before choosing
Since you have to decide at the end of first year which discipline to go into, joining a design team and experiencing or seeing what it’s like to do mechanical, chemical, etc engineering in a real world setting will help facilitate that design making. Also, can include the design team experience in the 2nd year specialization application, but this is a weaker argument since it's mostly based on grades.
Later on: Learned enough to know what you're doing
Can actually work somewhat independently on projects since you’ve learned more in your specialization. Some certain skills like coding/solid works/machine shop work may have a higher learning curve that would be challenging if you haven’t learned it before. Also, you’ve been placed in an engineering discipline already, you can join a team specifically for your specialization.
Conclusion: Unconclusive
I remember in first year, I horribly regretted my decision of not joining a design team. Most of my friends were part of design teams, and every time they said that they were going to their design team meeting, or doing something cool in their design team, I wished I were on a design team too. So I applied to a few design teams in term 2, but was rejected from all of them for some reasons I mentioned above. So the cons of joining a design team later on is being a sad design-teamless first year student and crying while your friends flex their design team meetings (unpurposefully).
When I joined the software team of my current design team in second year, another first year student joined at the same time. I had a bit more experience from the summer (learning web design) and found the task to be challenging but manageable. On the other hand, I feel like she was struggling a bit more, and sparsely came to meetings thereafter. This goes back to one of the debate points in that some skills do have a higher learning curve, and could result in a loss of interest if it's too hard.
