Opportunity and Collaboration at SHAD

This summer, I attended a month-long STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-based enrichment program called SHAD. SHAD is an opportunity for high school students from across Canada interested in STEM subjects to live together for a month on a university campus, learning from guest speakers and working together on projects.

SHAD was a great experience for me. At SHAD, I could learn using resources which normally would not have been available to me. For example, part of SHAD involved a group design project in which we were to develop a product which would aid in reducing the individual energy footprints of Canadians. During this project, we could (and indeed did) discuss topics such as the current costs and technology involved in household-scale battery storage, the amount of unused energy produced by common household appliances and technologies such as thermoelectric generators with university professors and those working with relevant technologies in industry.

Yet, there was more to the SHAD experience for me than the resources and curriculum: I was surrounded with people my age with whom I could discuss advanced STEM topics. During the second week of the program, we had a workshop on mathematical games. At the end of one of the sessions, we were asked to solve a game that was meant as a challenge, and afterwards we spent the free time working together to solve the problem. Working with my fellow SHADs on the problem not only allowed us to be much more effective than we might have otherwise but also provided me with a unique opportunity to discuss an interesting problem with others.

 

The abundance of these sorts of situations is a significant part of what made SHAD a meaningful and worthwhile experience to me. They made it very easy for me to benefit from my intellectual curiosity by having interesting conversations about topics, from discussing the chemistry behind electrochemical systems to developing a criterion for a non-square matrix to have a left (and right) pseudoinverse, and from these conversations learn a significant amount.

SHAD provided me with a unique opportunity to access resources I wouldn’t have otherwise and learn from people involved in fields in which I am interested. Furthermore, SHAD provided me with the experience of working and learning with people my age who are also interested in STEM. These factors allowed me to learn a large amount during SHAD whilst making SHAD a meaningful and truly unforgettable experience.