Hailey Pineau and Stephanie Bohaichuk show off a scanning electron microscope image of a snowflake. The two are competing at the Western Engineering Competition in Calgary this week.

Edmonton—Hailey Pineau and Stephanie Bohaichuk are going to have a lot of explaining to do at a national competition for engineering students this week.

The second-year students are taking part in the Western Engineering Competition, running Jan. 18 – 22 in Calgary. The pair is representing the U of A Faculty of Engineering in the communication skills competition, delivering a presentation explaining how scanning electron microscopes work.

The idea behind the challenge is that teams explain a technical subject in a way that a general audience can understand it. In the simplest terms, the microscopes bombard an object with electrons, which bounce back in much the same way sound waves bounce when you hear an echo. The device translates that ‘echo’ into a crisp image of objects invisible to traditional microscopes.

“We went out and got these 600-page books,” said Pineau. “There is almost too much information.”

The pair will stage a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer period, so they need to know a lot of detail about how the microscopes work and who uses them.

“The idea is to present the main concepts,” said Bohaichuk. “You try to select the most important topics and then you whittle it down to just the main points. We want our presentation to be in-depth enough so that people who are familiar with the subject aren’t bored, but not too complicated for people who aren’t.”

The Western Engineering Competition puts engineering students through their paces with events like the communications competition but also through other challenges, including design competitions and a fun debate.

Pineau and Bohaichuk—who have known each other since elementary school—understand the importance of the communication skills in the engineering profession.

“As engineers you have a responsibility to inform the public about different process that may affect their community,” said Pineau.

“It’s a fundamental skill,” added Bohaichuk. “You have to do presentations to get research grants, or to explain your work if you are collaborating with anyone from a different field—and that happens a lot these days.”

The two agree that participating in WEC enhances their engineering education. Last year the pair was part of a junior design team that competed at WEC in Saskatoon; and this year the subject they are researching will ultimately help them in their studies and profession.

Bohaichuk is studying engineering physics and knows an understanding of how SEMs work will eventually be required; for Pineau, who is studying electrical engineering with a biomedical option, knowing how the device works is important.

“We both thought it was a good opportunity to learn about something new,” said Bohaichuk.

“I’m interested in medical applications and definitely want to go into research so this is perfect for me,” Pineau said of the project.