EngSpotlight Perspective Series: Electrical Engineering

Quratulain Arshad
1st-Year Electrical Engineering
VP Academics ECESTORMS

The course that got me most excited about electrical engineering in my first year was ELE202 where you learn to build different circuits and solve them. The lab portion of that was extremely exciting because you take the conceptual circuits that you've been learning about in class and actually get to build and see them work in real time.

How has your first year shaped your understanding of electrical engineering?

First year teaches you that electrical engineering is impactful in so many different ways. You learn that there are so many different concepts, understandings, theories and practices that go into this field. Electrical engineering is not just wires. You work with different components and systems as an electrical engineer and collaborate across different teams. For example, you have design, you have quality, you have manufacturing. All of those different teams and departments come together to create a final product. And it's really beautiful how that one product, that one transformer, that one circuit has come from so many different people's efforts. Electrical engineering also has applications in different fields such as AI, hardware, and biomedical devices. There's a lot of work you can do that's not just limited to circuits and power systems.

Aila Afridi 
2nd-Year Electrical Engineering
First-Year Ambassador

I chose electrical engineering because I love circuits! Although I entered another discipline in my first-year, I realized very quickly after taking a circuits course that electrical engineering is the path for me. And I'm really proud of where I am right now.

Have you gotten involved with any extracurriculars or any design teams? What team did you choose? What was your role, and what was your experience like?

I am the Electrical Director for the Metropolitan Undergraduate Engineering Society (MUES) for the 2025–2026 year. MUES is a student organization that helps around 6,000 undergraduate engineering students transition through their first few years. My role specifically is to cater events toward electrical engineering students, including networking sessions, technical workshops and site visits.

I realized there’s not a lot of technical, hands-on experience that electrical engineering students get to see on a day-to-day basis, and many extracurriculars or workshops tend to focus more on software students. So, I wanted to create more hands-on and technical opportunities for electrical students, things like AutoCAD, Arduino and Raspberry Pi workshops. That’s why I chose to be the Electrical Director this year!

Connor Mazzaferro 
3rd-Year Electrical Engineering
IEEE TMU Chair

A lot of the things that you're learning here are directly applicable to the real world. You're meeting and making connections with people that are like-minded and incredibly intelligent, whether that's your friends, your professors or your TAs. You realize these people are just like me and we're all in this together.

How have student groups at TMU helped you on your co-op journey?

When you join a student group, the events are a big plus. So whether you're doing networking events or career building events where they're doing technical stuff, hackathons, that stuff obviously helps. But a really underrated part of joining a student group is the people you meet. When I was in third year, I had the privilege of joining a group that had a lot of fourth years in it and a lot of people who were doing co-op at the time. I got to learn from them, and I felt like I was a complete step ahead of the game just because I had personal experiences being handed down to me from that student group.

When you talk to the right people, university alumni, co-op alumni, current engineers, it all adds up. And hopefully, if you play your cards right, your co-op application process can feel way more well informed than it did because you took that initiative to get ahead by connecting with the right people.

Christine Nguyen 
4th-Year Electrical Engineering
Estimating Coordinator at Prodigy Group

The Electrical Engineering field is very established, but it also feels like it's always changing because of so many technological advancements. I personally see myself in some sort of project management role in the field. It's what I really enjoyed at school and what I really enjoyed in my co-op.

What's something you've done during your undergrad projects, research, or extracurriculars that you think sets you apart as a job candidate?

What sets me apart as a job candidate is the myriad of positions that I've held as a student. I've done a lot of marketing and project management roles, which I think are not really things that students in their first year focus on when they're learning about engineering. But engineering is so all-encompassing that it's something that really sets me apart as I am well-rounded in not only the technical side, but also the project management side. I was the president for the Metropolitan Undergraduate Engineering Society (MUES), I was on national engineering societies for students as well, and I got to talk to different organizations through that. I got to go to conferences. I got to meet the engineering deans of Canada. So, these are really cool experiences that I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't gotten involved. And then my co-op at Hydro-One just really opened up the doors on how I can use those experiences in the field.