Amy Takeda, left, and Dean Tamboline.
Chapter member and active volunteer Amy Takeda has advanced to the Canadian Engineering Competition to be held in March at the University of Calgary.
Amy, a tech writing student at BCIT, and competition partner Dean Tamboline, a third-year engineering student, qualified for the national event by placing second in the Engineering Communications category at the Western Engineering Competition held earlier this month in Banff.
Students from 12 universities competed in the event. Competitors in the communications category had to prepare and deliver a 30-minute presentation on a technical subject to a non-technical audience.
Amy and Dean`s presentation, “Superconductors and MRIs – how they can save your life”, looked at how engineering and the medical community have collaborated on new life-saving technology.
“We were a team made up of individuals from different backgrounds and skill sets,” says Amy. “That was both a challenge and a blessing – we had to figure out how to communicate and interpret some very technical information, and find examples, and create visual aids.”
“In a way it was like a real work project,” she says. “The subject matter expert and tech writer had to communicate and collaborate effectively.”
“We spent a lot of time preparing for the competition. But it was really rewarding, and we were ecstatic when we came in second.”
Amy heard about the competition through her role as VP of Communications for the BCIT Engineering Students Society. She plans to work as a tech writer in the engineering world when she graduates in the fall.
Winners of the national competition go on to the international competition later this year.
Stephen is a senior technical writer with more than 20 years experience writing for corporate and hi-tech clients in Vancouver and Toronto. He is the past president of the STC Canada West Coast chapter.