JIMMY YANG - CIVIL ENGINEER

RICHMOND HIGH SECONDARY SCHOOL ALUMNUS

Hello, my name is Jimmy and I am a graduate of the University of British Columbia (UBC) from the Department of Civil Engineering. I have worked at two different consulting companies at four different positions. In the coming months, I will begin working towards my Master of Science degree in Structural Engineering at Stanford University.

During my time at UBC, I helped out with the Steel Bridge team, giving me a closer look at what Civil engineers did and got a hands-on experience of working on designing, analyzing and fabricating a 22-foot long steel bridge for competition. My experience on this team not only helped me to develop technical skills used to land internships, but it also fostered a familial bond between classmates that was otherwise difficult to obtain. It was because of this joy of working with my teammates which eventually pushed me to become the captain of the team in my final year of undergrad.

Overall, my courses at UBC seemed fair and moderate in difficulty. Late night studies were common, perhaps due to my poor time management skills, but I was able to get through all my courses without any all-nighters. I would say that the most important thing is keeping a balanced lifestyle and a healthy mental and physical state. Considering group work is a core part of engineering, it can be easy to get overwhelmed and work against each other rather than with your teammates.

My internships required me to travel to different part of Western Canada. These tasks ranged from crawling under railroad bridges to inspect the timber posts, drafting up drawings that would be used to cost estimate the project, and design and analyze structures under various environmental effects such as a 9.0 magnitude earthquake. These positions allowed me to visualize the grand scheme of engineering and how different types of engineering would interact with one another. For example, while a transportation engineer may want a milder slope on a bridge to reduce the danger, a hydrotechnical engineer would want to maximize that slope to allow rainwater to flow off and minimize the catch basins and reduce cost.

Public safety is the penultimate priority for Civil Engineers. While engineers will consider safety, affordability and even aesthetics as factors in determining the final product, the wellbeing of the public will always be placed at the foreground of any design project.