Engineering professionals from diverse fields and experiences gathered with BYU engineering students to share their wisdom as a part of the annual Student Innovator of the Year (SIOY) competition and BYU Engineering Together (BE Together) initiatives.
Every year, mentors are invited to participate and offer guidance to young BYU students as a part of the Mentor Alliance. These mentors attend various events during the SIOY competition season, giving one-on-one feedback and helping students—who aspire to fill their shoes and enter the professional field of engineering—refine their skills.
On Nov. 21, 85 engineering students had the opportunity to meet with the mentors at a luncheon. Mentors spread out to each table and sat with students, sharing their unique career experiences with them over a meal.
The lunch was sponsored by the BE together initiative as a part of their aim to improve the culture of belonging in the college of engineering. Students that attended received general engineering career mentoring, whether they were just beginning their undergrad or close to graduating.
Noah Forsyth, a BYU freshman in the mechanical engineering program, has always been interested in aerospace science and had the opportunity to sit with an aerospace engineer, listening to their insights. He said his mind has “expanded” with an understanding off more possibilities for his career.
“I don't really have a very specific direction right now, so just hearing all of the different avenues helps develop my thoughts about what direction I want to go in,” Forsyth said. “The most valuable portion of it was hearing their story, hearing what they did, hearing how they got where they got.”
Mentors spoke with students not only about engineering and project insights, but also more general advice about being an adult and having a career. They had real world discussions regarding their careers overlapping with normal life, related to finance, work-life balance, travel, work benefits, and other topics.
Jon Wittwer, a BYU engineering alum and founder of Vertex42.com, was a mentor at the event and enjoyed speaking with students. He recognized the importance of receiving feedback from people who have more life experience.
“Especially as a student, you have fairly limited life experience,” Wittwer said. “The important thing is that you start to develop those contacts and put yourself out there and ask questions.”
Wittwer also encourages students to realize that their “path is extremely, highly variable and is affected by even the minor interactions.”
After the luncheon, mentors transitioned from general career mentoring and advice to giving specific feedback to SIOY competitors who are developing their own projects already. They were instructed on how to do so and reviewed the SIOY rubric, which evaluates student projects based on criteria under three categories: engineering, innovation, and impact.
Wittwer values getting outside perspectives on engineering projects, especially within a business-oriented arena that may not be part of an engineering background.
One of the important feedback things you can get is the outside opinions about your own ideas, because we can get locked into thinking that our ideas are the best and everybody's going to like it.
The mentors ended the afternoon by going to the first floor of the Engineering building, where 38 SIOY teams were ready to present their projects at booths spread around the whole floor.
Brandon Hoskins and Clara Swenson introduced their project to the mentors: a sensor system intended to prevent accidents for semis that is all automated and non-invasive for drivers and vehicle companies.
Hoskins and Swenson have been working on their project for eleven months with the Crocker Innovation Fellowship, which is ending, and are looking to take their idea to the next step with SIOY.
“I think that we're gonna be able to get a lot of really good insights as far as talking to investors and the path to profitability, which is a big turning point that we're at right now,” Swenson said.
Hoskins is hoping to learn how to make connections and get profit from their project.
“We are both from very niche fields, and we are not jacks-of-all-trades, so getting diverse mentorship from all different kinds of people is definitely very valuable,” Swenson said.
The SIOY Showcase, the preliminary judging competition to determine the teams that will advance to the SIOY Final Competition, will take place on Feb. 11. The final competition will take place on Feb. 27.
Learn more about SIOY here.
