The iBioMed podcast, titled Brainwaves, aims to share the iBioMed student experience, interviews, and more! The first episode, titled “The Kids are Alright”, provides great insight into the iBioMed online learning experience. Podcast hosts Danny Al-Sammak and Amreen Mander are accompanied by guests Abby McEwan (IBEHS Level I) and Dr. Mohamed Bakr (Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), to discuss how students are adjusting to the new online learning environment, and the promising features offered by an online platform.
It’s hard, but I think it’s hard for everyone, and that’s why it’s so cool. Everyone is in the same boat together, and as we’re struggling, we’re able to share our experiences, and we’re actually growing closer together by being online all the time.
Since many courses have asynchronous recorded lectures, many students find it beneficial to be able to manage their own time, allowing for increased efficiency. Labs and projects have also shifted to an online platform, and collaboration during lectures is encouraged to maintain communication. Abby McEwan is a first-year iBioMed student who has yet to experience on-campus lectures. She expresses, “It’s hard, but I think it’s hard for everyone, and that’s why it’s so cool. Everyone is in the same boat together, and as we’re struggling, we’re able to share our experiences, and we’re actually growing closer together by being online all the time”.
Abby also shares her experiences with the iBioMed group projects and discusses how they not only bring everyone together, but also allow for exposure to professionals in the medical industry. The iBioMed program introduces students to a wide range of biomedical engineering projects during their first-year, including hip implants and programmable robotic arms. Abby’s main piece of advice is to keep your camera on during lectures as it allows one to be held socially accountable to stay focused.
Dr. Bakr, a professor in McMaster’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been practicing a “flipped classroom” approach for many years before the pandemic. His students would be asked to listen to pre-recorded lectures, and the lecture time would be reserved for sample problems and discussion.
“I was one of the lucky few who had built up material over the years. I used to use them as extra resources for my students, but suddenly they became the main backbone of my courses,” he says.
The transition to online-learning has allowed for exciting innovations in the field of engineering and education. Dr. Bakr has used this opportunity to further develop his learning tools with the creation of a virtual reality tool to aid his students in electromagnetism labs. This promising technology would allow students to enter a virtual world in which the electric and magnetic fields can be seen around them, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of course content. He expresses, “Electromagnetics is a very abstract course and fields are extremely difficult to visualize. So, we tried to make these concepts less abstract”. Through such technologies, Dr. Bakr hopes that students will be able to complete engineering labs, from the comfort of their own home, while being immersed in a physical laboratory.
To learn more about Abby’s first-year experience, and Dr. Bakr’s exciting virtual reality project, be sure to listen to Brainwaves episode one, “The Kids are Alright.”
Follow the iBioMed social media channels for updates regarding new episodes!
Meet this article’s writers:
| Mariam Dawood Mariam is a third-year iBioMed student and Ambassador specializing in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering. She is the iBioMed Content Creation Committee Lead, and is involved with the prosthetics division of the McMaster Medical Engineering Design Team. |
| Ibrahim Iftikhar Ibrahim is a first-year iBioMed student and Ambassador, hoping to specialize in the Health, Engineering Science, and Entrepreneurship (HESE) stream. He is interested in the neuroscience of dreams, artificial intelligence, and innovation in the medical industry. |
| Jocelyn Xu Jocelyn is a first-year iBioMed student and Ambassador, aiming to specialize in a Biomedical Engineering (BME) stream. She enjoys working on design projects and learning technical skills such as programming and solid modelling in her labs and lectures. |
