This July I had a wonderful opportunity to participate in the SHAD program. For those of you who don't know, SHAD is a month-long summer program for high school students that focuses on STEAM.

On another note, the campus that I was at, Ontario Tech University, was the biggest SHAD campus. It had 120 people, and it was a lot of fun. Still don't know how many people I have not spoken to.

First Couple of Days

The first day was an experience. I am a relatively introverted person, so I was a bit nervous about meeting new people. However, I quickly realized I am staying with these people for a month, so I got over my social anxiety and started talking to people. I realized that the sooner I started talking to people, the sooner I could actually have fun.

As some may have seen, I also did a bit of hacking and I got infinite (laundry) money.

The Lectures

The lectures were always hit or miss. Some of them were fascinating, and some of them were really boring. The most memorable lectures were about Nuclear energy and the future its future and a lecture on networking and how to make connections.

The Workshops

The workshops were fun:

Here's a list of what I did:

AI Workshop: We learned about AI and how it can be used to solve real-world problems. It was just teachable machine.
AI hackathon: We had a hackathon where we had to use AI to solve a problem. My team and I "created" an AI to teach cursive. (It was hard coded lol)
Boat Building: We had to build a boat out of cardboard and duct tape. It was a lot of fun, and our boat actually floated and it was fast!
Car Building: We had to build a car out mousetraps and other materials. (My team failed bc we overestimated the power of mousetraps)
Robot Automation: We had to build a robot to follow a line and do tasks the fastest. This is what I specialized in and my team won!
3D Printing: We learned how to 3D print, and we got to print our own designs. L workshop people would not let me use anything other than Tinkercad.
Technology and healthcare: We learned about how technology is being used in healthcare. From dementia care to robot guide dogs.

The Design Project

This year our prompt was: "Powering Canada's Future." We made a smart home system that uses AI to save power. The User would be able to set a power saving target and the system would automatically adjust the power usage of the house to meet that target.

Most of it was hardcoded, like in most business pitches, but it was still a lot of fun.

Trips

The weekend trips were the most fun. You forget about the stressful Design project, and you have fun with your friends.

Here are some of the trips we went on:

Centre Island: We went to Toronto and visited Centre Island (Been to that place so many times). Never forget the tree.
Aga Khan Museum: We went to the Aga Khan Museum and learned about Islamic art and culture. It was a lot of fun.
TFC Game: We went to a TFC game, Philadelphia let in two goals for no reason and toronto won. I don't watch soccer, but it was still fun.
Wet and Wild: We went to Wet and Wild. I went on two rides and then toronto flooded :) We left early.
Ceder Glen YMCA: We went to Ceder Glen for a day trip. The night before I had absolutely destroyed my left index finger but I pushed through and had a lot of fun.

Kinda a trip:

ACE Wind Tunnel: We went to the ACE Wind Tunnel (On campus) and learned about all the aerodynamic and climate research that goes on there. It was a lot of fun.

Stories

I have a lot of stories from SHAD, but here are some of the most memorable ones:

Fireworks

On July 1st, we had a firework show for Canada Day. It was the staff bought a lot of fireworks, and it was a lot of fun. So we, all the SHADs, were chatting and watching the fireworks, then one of the boxes of fireworks fell over and started shooting fireworks at us. It was a lot of fun and chaos. In the end no one was hurt, and it was a great memory.

The "Shootout"

On the night of July 14th after a weekend of safe trips with no incidents, one of the Program Managers decided to prank the staff with a fake fight. At around 10:30 during a staff meeting, the "fight" broke out. A group of 3 (Always follow the rule of 3) ran down five floors to the staff meeting and informed them of the fight. The staff the started to head upstairs and one of the 3, screamed "Run!"; this was unfortunately heard as "Gun!" The police was called but the situation was resolved quickly. (I was not present for this, I was in my room, and I was told the story from all sides.)

My finger

A night before the Ceder Glen trip, right before curfew, I was chilling in my doorway with my left hand stupidly on the top of the door frame. My roommate and his friend (Both nice people I don't blame them) ran in and slammed the door shut. My finger was crushed, and I was in a lot of pain. Because of my finger being at the top of the door frame, there was mechanical advantage on my finger, and it was crushed pretty badly. It did not bleed instantly because the skin did not split but when it did I saw my tendon and tissue. Luckily, I did not have to go to the hospital, and I was able to recover pretty quickly.

The end

The end was bittersweet. I was happy to go home (For like 2 hours, flew halfway across the world alone after) but I was also sad to leave all the friends I had made.

To all the people I met at SHAD, I hope you have a great year, and I hope to see you all again soon!