Azfar Adib
In the IEEE community, we’ve become used to organizing and attending different technical events throughout the year, like technical talks, workshops, conferences, etc. How about trying something different—technical learning combined with interactive fun activities?
Such an idea came to the student members in the IEEE Montreal Section when they had an educational visit to the Montreal Science Centre on 13 August 2022. The initial plan was to have a summer meetup, which ultimately transformed into an enjoyable experience consisting of both social activities and technical learning. It was attended by participants from five Student Branches (SBs) in the Montreal Section: Polytechnique Montréal, McGill University, École de technologie supérieure, Institute national de la recherche scientifique, and Concordia University.
Established in 2000 and situated in the historic Old Port Area of Montreal, the Montreal Science Centre has an enriched exhibition of science and technology. Through a group visit program, the center hosted and guided us through an interactive experience.
The exhibition started with a demonstration of our body structure and functions in the “Human” section. It was quite interesting to see and experience reflections of our different organs in different scenarios. For example, there was an exercise about visual orientation. There, we first looked at a simple picture (like a circle). Then, we closed our eyes and tried to draw it on a digital board. When we opened our eyes, it was cool to see the differences between our drawing and the actual picture! This simple activity demonstrated the capability and limitations of our visual orientation. Overall, this section gave us a good idea about the long evolution that made us what we are today.
The next section, “The Windmills of the Imagination,” contained the world’s first electricity-to-water transformer, which was created for the inauguration of this center. It is a hydroelectric generator station that produces water from electrical energy. This unique idea came from its inventor when he became concerned by the alarming rate at which we consume our planet’s water. By automating various recycled objects, he created a machine that produces an endless flow of water!
This section also contained a windmill that produces electricity. These big machines sparked our engineering curiosity, which was amplified as we moved into the next segment, “Life-Sized Science.” This is the largest section of the center, with a wide range of activities. There, we explored so many things—light, water, air, electricity, metal, geometry, and artificial intelligence!
While some of us built water circuits to generate electricity, others experimented with the mysterious impact of air pressure. We could step into the spectrum of light to explore reflection, refraction, ultraviolet, infrared, and so on. We observed some simple but fascinating phenomena of geometrics and discovered the secrets of magnetic attraction.
A group photo of participants during the visit.
Playing with air pressure and having fun with electric circuits.
Working in teams to solve challenges in the Fabrik workshops.
In a segment about artificial intelligence, we got first-hand experience with reinforcement learning by training an autonomous car in a simulated setup. There, we first picked a car and defined its setting. Then came the important task of defining its training parameters, such as the time to train, the number of training inputs from the surroundings, speed versus safety, etc. Once the training was done, the on-screen car started moving across the road by itself. Sometimes, it went smoothly for a while; sometimes, it crashed on the roadside very quickly. It showed us the importance of proper training for autonomous vehicles.
The last section that we visited, “Fabrik—Creativity Factory,” was probably the most engaging one. It is basically a workshop space, containing creative challenges of assembly work using a variety of random pieces. We worked there in three different teams, each addressing a particular goal with the provided materials. For instance, one team was tasked with making a moving device using some raw materials, without wheels, that was able to move downward by just hanging on a pair of ropes! Problems like this were a fascinating engineering challenge, and they were quite fun to brainstorm, plan, and execute. We ended the visit with some refreshments in the center’s cafeteria.
It was an exciting summer afternoon, which made us further energized to accelerate IEEE endeavors in our Section. We are looking ahead to run our different activities a little more creatively in 2023, thanks to what we learned from this visit!
This visit simultaneously sparked our curiosity, engineering passion, and—most importantly—the spirit of fun learning! It just reminded us that engineers/scientists are both problem solvers and change makers. They can be pragmatic, and also creative. They can dream, and they can also adapt. Ultimately, being engineering students, it was so inspirational to get immersed in our vocation on this trip. Every SB should host a trip like this!
Azfar Adib (azfar.adib@concordia.ca) is the Student Activities chair in the IEEE Montreal Section and a Ph.D. candidate with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Concordia University, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8 Canada.