Amount of funding awarded
4520.4
How the program has supported you
Impact of support on trip goals:
A goal of this trip is to provide students with international experiences and opportunities at an affordable price.
— — By increasing affordability, PAF support made the trip more accessible to more students, which also increased the diversity of trip participants.
— — — — For contacts overseas, PAF support opens the door to forming a network not only with IEEE, and ECE, but with other UBC engineering students. PAF support also opens doors for collaborating with multiple engineering departments for future trips.
— — The funding eliminated transportation costs for company visits, and travel to airports; and reduced costs for flights, and accommodation.
PAF support greatly increases trip credibility/legitimacy.
— — PAF confidence and support, also helps brings credibility in efforts to scale the trip in anyway—involving more faculty,
applying for funding, involving other departments etc.
— — — — PAF funding helped secure additional funding for the trip, when used to apply for additional funding from the ECE department and ICF (IEEE Canada Fund) funding.
— — When reaching out to organise tours/visits, PAF support helps secure trust with overseas companies and organizations.
Outcomes
Exposure to sustainable development:-
Students gained inspiration from large development projects mentioned earlier such as the Royal Seaport, Hammarby, and GrowSmarter. Here students were exposed sustainable ideas and technologies, such as district heating, underground heat storage, wastewater to biogas production, heat recapture, smart-grids, electric car-pooling programs, and utilising off-peak hours for charging/usage of appliances. Students also learned about the necessity of structural and behavioural changes such as the need for thorough communication with communities before implementing changes, and appointing community energy managers.
Students had the opportunity to visit Stockholm startup communities in the Stayaround and Embassy Co-working spaces. In these workspaces students visited Lexplore, Imagimob, and Volumental, prominent AI startups. In Gothenburg students visited a prominent startup – Cellink – where they were exposed to work with biomedical devices, and 3D bioprinting, and cell testing. Lastly, students had extensive exposure to university research in integrated/autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and renewable energy.