New alumni profile: Sheetal Puri

Meet one of our amazing new alumni who are graduating from the Faculty of Applied Sciences.

Sheetal Puri: BASc, School of Engineering Science

What was a highlight or favourite moment from your time at SFU?
My favorite moment from my time at SFU has to be the time I organized my first GOENG Girls workshop through SFU’s Women in Engineering club. The sustainability themed workshop for middle school girls involved building a small-scale electrical model of a wind-turbine using direct current motors. At the end of the workshop, one of the attendee’s dad asked me where he could purchase the workshop materials for his daughter so she can experiment building similar engineering models at home. Their enthusiasm made me feel like all the hard work I had put into the workshop had been rewarded.

How has your experience at SFU prepared you for your career path?
Other than the technical courses and the extra-curricular experiences, my capstone project played a big role in helping me enter my career today. These include soft-skills like being proactive and having good work ethics.

What advice would you like to share to students in their first year?
My first advice for new students is to get out there and get involved. Courses and labs do a great job of providing you with all the technical knowledge. Extra-curriculars such as joining clubs, design teams and co-ops give you an outlet to apply and enhance that technical knowledge. My second advice is more of a note - that it’s okay to feel overwhelmed when you are starting your undergrad journey. Just remember to ask for help because there are a ton of resources, mentors and advisors to help you navigate.

What are your current plans?
After graduation, I will be starting a full-time role at MDA Space working as a Junior Mission Ops engineer at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Québec. In this role, I will be part of the Flight Support Team that monitors, analyzes and operates the Canadarm2 robotic arm on the International Space Station (ISS). Once fully trained on ISS, my duties will also involve training astronauts on the robotic arm operations.