Now that the winter semester has come to a close and it is (finally) starting to feel like summer, it is time to recap the top moments of the semester! So much has happened from the conclusion of The Game to the release of Patricia Sheridan‘s (PhD candidate, ILead) research on team effectiveness to an engineering leadership CEO luncheon!
ILead wants to thank everyone for their participation and engagement! It has been a fantastic semester of leadership learning and reflection in co-curricular programs and courses, advancements in the Engineering Leadership Project and TELS, and sharing knowledge and best practices with industry partners.
In no particular order, here are the top ten moments of winter 2016!
1. ILead:Grad – Success Stories from PhD Engineers and Scientists
On January 14th, ILead:Grad hosted a panel of professionals with PhDs in engineering or science to discuss careers post-academia and workplace lessons. Discussions of humility and attitude in the workplace occurred with panelists describing the difficulty to unlearn some of the things that became inherent as a PhD student; such as solving a problem to completion and publishing – feats not necessarily associated within industry.
Check out photos from the event here and a recap here!
2. Full-day Leadership Lab on Team Skills
On January 30th, ILead hosted a full day Leadership Lab on Team Skills. Students explored their leadership style, practiced conflict management and resolution, and learned facilitation skills and meeting management techniques. Students gained a toolkit of resources to create high impact teams!
Check out photos from the event here!
3. ILead helped turn U of T into a sea of pink to end bullying on Pink Shirt Day!
4. Community of Practice: Conference on the Leader Engineer – Workplace Practices for Leadership Development of Engineers
What does the current generation of engineering graduates expect of their job? What do employers expect of them? On March 9th, students, ILead staff, human resource professionals, and engineering professionals gathered to discuss leadership transitions, talent development, and millennial expectations.
“The conference was a great platform for me to realize the differences and similarities in academic versus industry approaches to leadership and leadership education” says Geordie Distelmeyer (ChemE 1T6), “having the opportunity to speak with leaders from industry helped me to better understand active practices utilized for personal and professional development in the workplace.”
Check out photos from the event here and a recap here!
5. The Game: Project Showcase
After seven months of work, students from The Game shared their solutions to societal challenges for a chance to win $5000. Projects ranged from using a game to help high school students make an informed post-secondary decision to an app for finding the right student group at U of T to mitigating food waste in Toronto.
Only time will tell what becomes of the students’ projects, but The Game has already had an impact on some of the participants’ career plans. Abdulla Matar (CivE 1T6) entered into The Game with few expectations. “As the months progressed, my career path sort of shifted to doing more social innovation and social consulting positions,” he said. “And that’s actually where I’m applying right now. I really didn’t expect to be interested in this sort of thing, but it’s honestly influenced my career thinking.”
Check out photos from the event here and a recap here!
6. Patricia Sheridan (PhD candidate), Doug Reeve (Director, ILead), and Greg Evans (Associate Director, ILead) release a report on team-effectiveness for the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO)
Based on research conducted with the first-year Engineering Science class in Winter 2012, this report outlines the differences in the effects of structured and unstructured feedback on student learning of teamwork in design-project teams. This study forms one of the foundation blocks of the Team-effectiveness Inventory (TEI) used in the Team-effectiveness Learning System (TELS). Read more here!
7. Full-day Leadership Lab on Workplace Readiness
On March 19th, students met to discuss workplace readiness. Students explored topics of organizational culture, leadership, and influence from an entry-level position, and learned about the transition from university to the workplace from a panel of engineering professionals.
Katie Dritsas (ChemE 1T7), a participant, learned she needs to understand “how to take risks within a company and how to add more value to a company”.
Check out photos from the event here!
8. Engineering leadership celebrated at CEO luncheon
On April 15th, ILead staff, students, and CEOs met to celebrate how leadership learning has influenced student’s skills and identity.
Ernesto Díaz Lozano Patiño (CivE 1T5 + PEY) was a student in attendance and spoke about taking APS343H (Engineering Leadership). “ILead made me reflect on the concept of leadership,” Diaz Lozano Patiño said. “It allowed me not only to understand how to be an effective leader, but also how to apply leadership skills in an engineering environment.”
Check out a recap of the event here!
9. ILead launches new club space initiatives
![image[1]](https://ilead.engineering.utoronto.ca/files/2016/05/image1.jpeg)
ILead introduced an array of new initiatives for student leaders of clubs and organizations: one-on-one coaching, organizational level consulting, and the Lending Library.
10. ILead winter courses wrap-up
![image[2]](https://ilead.engineering.utoronto.ca/files/2016/05/image2.jpeg)
This semester ILead offered undergraduate and graduate courses on Engineering Leadership, Leadership in Project Management, Engineering Presentations, Concepts and Applications of Authentic Leadership, and The Cognitive and Psychological Foundations of Effective Leadership.