Students gathered around a laptop at the EMBER mock lab session

EMBER Program Connect, learn and prepare – now fully virtual!

Get a head start on your university career through our flexible, optional virtual pre-university program designed to suit your needs.

Register here for EMBER 2025!

Prepare for your first year

Mix and match courses and other opportunities to create your own unique, customized EMBER experience.

This Engineering Mentorship and Bridging Education Resources (EMBER) program is available to students who are entering their first year in one of the following programs:

  • Engineering
  • Bachelor of Technology
  • Computer Science
  • Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences

EMBER is a virtual bridging program offered at no additional cost to students.

Questions? Send us an email!

The EMBER Method: 100% Online Learning & Live Virtual Sessions

Statistics

  • Online Modules (Self-Paced & Virtual)

    July & August – Prepare for September with fully online learning modules in Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Computing. Learn at your own pace through videos and interactive content, available starting in July.

  • Live Virtual Tutorials & Info Sessions

    August – Join live online crash courses and tutorials in math, chemistry, physics, and computing. Plus, connect with your Fireball Family through virtual info sessions on academic advising and more.

  • Schedule

    Coming Soon – The schedule for live virtual EMBER 2025 sessions will be posted here. Stay tuned!

an EMBER staff member and a student working around a computer.

Courses

Learn the foundational concepts of engineering with courses in Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Computing, each designed to prepare you for first year courses. You are encouraged to customize your learning experience and can register for one, two, three or all four courses.

Each course will include online modules featuring videos, quizzes, and interactive activities and opportunities to interact with upper-year engineering students through live online tutorials.

From functions to limits and derivatives

  • Algebra: Polynomials, rationals, exponents, radicals, equalities, and inequalities.
  • Linear Algebra: Linear equations, matrices, and Gauss-Jordan elimination.
  • Trigonometry: Radian measure, arc length, trigonometric ratios, identities, functions, and graphing, solving functions, and hyperbolics.
  • Geometry & Vectors: Representing vectors, vector operations, lines, and planes.
  • Functions: Domain and range, evaluating, solving, and creating functions, graphing, and inverse functions.
  • Limits, Derivatives, & Integrals: First principles, differentiation, curve sketching, optimization, summation, antiderivatives, and integrals.

From kinematics to gravitational, electric and magnetic fields

  • Kinematics: Vectors, 1D and 2D motion, and uniform circular motion.
  • Forces: Free body diagrams, Newton’s laws of motion, and types of forces.
  • Dynamics: 1D/2D motion and forces, rotational motion and forces, and torque.
  • Work & Energy: Work, energy, and conservation of energy.
  • Momentum & Impulse: Impulse and momentum, law of conservation of momentum, and angular momentum.
  • Oscillating Motion: Oscillation and simple harmonic motion.
  • Electricity & Circuits: Electric fields and DC circuits.
  • Magnetism: Magnetic fields and electric charges in magnetic fields.

From ideal gas law to thermochemistry

  • Ideal Gas Law: Moles, ideal gas equation, & partial pressure.
  • Structures & Properties of Matter: Atomic structure, quantum model of the atom, periodic trends, chemical bonding, Lewis structures, VSEPR theory, and chemical solutions.
  • Chemical Reactions: Balancing reactions, stoichiometry, redox reactions, and galvanic cells.
  • Chemical Equilibrium: Dynamic equilibrium, Le Chatelier’s principle, equilibrium concentrations, and solubility.
  • Acids & Bases: Brønsted-Lowry theory, acid/base strength, and acid-base equilibrium.
  • Thermochemistry: System and properties, energy, work, first law of thermodynamics, enthalpy, Hess’ law, heat of formation, and bond enthalpy.

From introduction to programming to functions

  • Introduction to Programming: Algorithms, flowcharts, pseudocode, statement-by-statement execution, and computer architecture.
  • Python Basics: Variables, assigning, printing, computations, and lists.
  • If-Elif-Else Statements: Comparison operators, conditional statements (if-elif-else), and logical operators.
  • Loops: For loops, range function, and while loops.
  • Nested Structures: Nested control, decision, and repetition structures.
  • Functions: Function basics and main functions.

What our students are saying

Read about Mrinal and Robin's EMBER experience

Our goals

Academic Success

To prepare students entering into Level 1 Faculty of Engineering programs for academic success by teaching and reinforcing foundational concepts in Math, Physics, Chemistry and Computing.

Social Success

To prepare students entering into Level 1 Faculty of Engineering programs for social success by introducing and connecting the students to each other, upper-year students, faculty member, and staff in engineering. Get to know the #FireballFamily!

Avenue to Learn

Courses will be taken through Avenue to Learn.

Avenue to Learn is the primary learning, course delivery and assessment platform at McMaster.

Access Avenue to Learn
a group of students sitting at a desk discussing an assignment.
three students conducting an experiment with a bouncy ball.

Frequently asked questions

You can register for EMBER 2025 here and the deadline is Friday, July 04.

EMBER is focused on helping students get up to speed on important high school concepts in Physics, Math, and Chemistry, but does introduce some early concepts taught in first year. The Computing course introduces the basics of programming and assumes no previous programming knowledge, but may also be useful for students with programming experience to review. It is meant to give students confidence as they enter their first year, when computing will be introduced.

There are four courses to choose from in EMBER (Math, Physics, Chemistry, and Computing). Each course consists of asynchronous modules and online live tutorials. The asynchronous content varies in duration between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours for each module. These are pre-recorded modules that students can do on their own time throughout the summer. The online live tutorial sessions in August are each approximately 50 minutes in length.

Yes, the asynchronous video modules and synchronous live tutorials are held virtually.

Yes, students can choose to register for one, two, three, or all four courses.

During the real-time tutorial weeks, the EMBER courses run every day at the listed times on the Live Tutorials schedule that will be announced. Each workshop is run twice to allow students to attend every workshop if they wish.

Yes! Even if you are unable to attend any of the online live tutorials, you can still register for EMBER and sign up for each course to get access to the course’s recorded sessions. You can choose to watch the recorded sessions at your earliest convenience.

More questions? Email us

This program is designed to ease your worries. It will support you, help you make the transition to university a smooth one and will welcome you a little early to the Fireball Family.

Heather Sheardown, Dean, Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University

TAP into the Mac Eng experience!

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