SSBC 2023 Team Engagement Award: The UBC Steel Bridge Story
Written by Kyle Beltran - Design & Analysis Joints Lead
The past year for UBC Steel Bridge has been an unforgettable year with many special memories, great challenges, and an even greater team of students to create solutions. As one of the long-standing engineering teams from the University of British Columbia (UBC), we have established a 25-year legacy focused on building a community that allows students to express themselves through their engineering excellence, choice of art form, or simply, their desire to bridge connections. Therefore, one of our goals for the past year has been to build on this legacy by further improving our existing equity, diversity and inclusion practices. Through this letter, we would like to share with you our collective efforts and experiences from the past year to achieve this goal. From members who started this university this past fall to senior leads and captains who have devoted their university careers to the team; these are our stories.
UBC Steel Bridge had one of its most exciting years during the 2021-2022 school year, participating in three competitions: Student Steel Bridge Competition (SSBC) Regionals at UBC, SSBC National Finals at Virginia Tech and the Canadian National Steel Bridge Competition (CNSBC) at Université de Sherbrooke. Having three competitions in the span of two months had its challenges, but we came out of it as a better team, having the best result we have reached at SSBC National Finals. After recovering from the pandemic and returning to in person collaboration, we learned many valuable lessons on how to enhance our community learning to improve our collective experience with teamwork and innovation.
In the fall, we continued a recruitment process that allowed us to better understand each applicant’s personal and academic goals, and how our team can potentially lend a helping hand. This approach also allowed sub-team leads to better plan their training to accommodate all members, regardless of year standing or experience level. Connecting with potential candidates at information sessions during the first week of school inspired many junior students to apply and as a result, 13 junior students were welcomed to the team this year. Nora, from the Design & Analysis sub-team, was one of the new recruits, “As a junior student with little technical experience, I was pleasantly surprised during the recruitment process as it was not at all technical. Most questions were centered around enthusiasm, commitment, and teamwork, which made me more determined to join Steel Bridge!” We deeply encouraged both new and returning members to embrace a growth mindset, and take advantage of this diverse learning environment to enhance their existing engineering knowledge. We provided hands-on training by providing references, absorbing lessons learned from previous years and providing references with over 226 minutes of tutorial videos made by our own sub-team leads. This year’s team consists of 64 members, ranging from first-year undergraduate to graduate students, spread throughout seven sub-teams.
Our Marketing sub-team consistently contributes to building an inclusive environment. From the icebreaker event, game nights, ice skating, candy grams, to different holiday specials, our culture provides a lighthearted break in the middle of endless midterm exams and a platform for team members to get to know each other. These events also often include alumni members join us for continuing long-lasting connections beyond the team’s technical commitments. Our co-captain, Hana, who is graduating this spring and has been with the team for the last 5 years reflects on her experience, “As I became a team co-captain, I believe in building a team that provides opportunities to grow and have fun no matter their background, as I have been able to in the last five years. Now as I graduate, I'll miss the long design meetings to late-night construction practice sessions with a team working hard towards a common goal.”
To ensure that we help our members establish their network in the industry, our Sponsorship sub-team organized numerous “Lunch & Learns” where our Platinum sponsors presented their ongoing projects, shared personal experiences and valuable advice. The Sponsorship sub-team also organized an “Industry Night”, providing an opportunity for all members to network with our industry sponsors in person. Our Sponsorship Lead, Puneet, described the event as “...bridging the gap between academia and the professional world! By interacting with professionals from various fields, members can build valuable connections and explore potential career options.” In contrast to the various networking events across campus, the smaller-scale setting allows more opportunity for our members to personally connect with industry members.
We took advantage of the diverse talents and skills of the team whenever possible, including spreading the workload equitably and providing the opportunities for further commitment in our general and sub-team meetings. For example, our Fabrication sub-team members took initiatives in various self-lead projects, including fabricating wooden jigs to designing helpful tools for the bridge construction. As an ongoing practice of the growth mindset, we value and are open to feedback from all of our members and external parties we collaborate with. Anonymous surveys are sent out after most events, and for mid-term and post-term evaluations. Every comment and piece of feedback helps us recognize our accomplishments and areas of improvement for the following years. Sub-team leads also compile and summarize lessons learned throughout the year in a transition document, with lessons from previous leads, to ease the learning curve of the next year’s leads.
As of the current political climate, practicing equity, diversity and inclusion has never been more impactful no matter the size of our actions. These values have been held to a great standard within the UBC Steel Bridge community, and we recognize that these values follow us outside of the classroom as members of the society. By recruiting and training a team of members no matter their background, organizing events tailored to making connections, creating a safe space for creativity, and continuously practicing a growth mindset, we hope to show our members and future leaders what a progressive community could look like by example.
