My second year at McGill has now come to a close. It has been a very busy semester, on both the academic and extracurricular fronts.

My studies over the past few months included some challenging material. One class that stands out in particular is Advanced Calculus for Engineers, a significant step up in difficulty from first-year calculus and an important reminder of why my degree is in engineering, not math. Fortunately, I was able to balance the pure math with some courses closer to my field of study, such as Computer Engineering and Introduction to Software Engineering. As part of the latter course, my classmates and I designed and programmed a clone of a popular 1980s video game, something which I enjoyed much more than vector calculus.

At the end of last semester, my tenure as VP Finance of the Newman Students’ Society came to a close. Over the past few months, the Society underwent a number of important changes – a new mission statement, a revised organizational structure, and even a name change to the Newman Catholic Students’ Society – following the passage of an omnibus constitutional amendment that I helped draft. The Society also managed to set a new record for money raised at our annual fundraiser, the Newman Ball (see photo). My involvement with the Society is far from over, though; I was elected president for the next academic year.

I am looking forward to the summer, when I’ll again be working full-time for an Ottawa-based high-tech start-up called Solace Systems. I’ll see you again next fall!