Hello, and welcome to the Vertical Research Potluck.

My name is Aditi and I'm

working with Chris Simon from the department of Electrical and Software
engineering to try to raise awareness for Vertical Research and the ways it
benefits the community here at the University of Calgary
So, what is Vertical Research and how did it begin?
Well, it all began about 10 years ago when Chris Simon noticed 4 th year
electrical students struggling with soldering equipment during their labs.
Being the amazing technician that Chris is, he began to offer training sessions
during lunch, on his own time, in order to teach these students how to solder
The workshops became so popular that they later became known as 'Practical
Practice'
'Practical Practice' expanded beyond soldering. Students soon brought in
electronic devices like radios, Playstations and phones and they became
interested in the mechanisms which allowed these devices to function. This is
what became the basis and inception idea for Vertical Research
These workshops started out as a tool for students to excel in lectures and
labs but evolved into something much more than that. They became an
interactive environment in which students could explore the real-world
applications of the very expensive education they were undertaking. It also
enabled an environment to exist whereby technicians and undergraduate
students could network through mentor-mentee relationships
I know we always hear the importance of real-world applications and the
importance of gaining those teamwork skills and networking with people. And
we hear them so often I think these words really start lose their meaning or at
least they aren't as impactful as they should be. So I want to provide a
student perspective. I know that many of you here are graduate students,
and I'm just a lowly undergrad student but maybe some of what I say will
relate to your experiences
Because as a student, sometimes I honestly don't really care about teamwork
or gaining practical experience. Sometimes, I'm just busy and all I really care
about is doing the absolute minimum I can. I go to my lectures, I do my labs, I
finish my tutorials, and then... I go home, because that's all I really need to
do
But when I look back, even just to the past year, I cant remember most of it.
The parts I do remember: I remember spending an entire weekend locked up
in a room at the university with my fluid mechanics group working on our
group project. I remember the first time we got our autonomous device to
move by itself in ENGG 200. And I remember the first time I met Chris and
the other lab technicians
That's kind of the sad part. Most of what we learn we'll forget. A lot of the
theory, it exists somewhere in the recesses of my mind, but if you gave me a
second order differential equation right now, for the life of me, I couldn't solve
it

That's where I think Vertical Research really plays a big role. It isn't some side
extracurricular activity that's offered. I think we should treat it as a bridge
between academics and practical experience
Universities aren't technical schools, but if we get rid of the practical
experience portion completely, we really lose out on providing a robust
education to students
That practical experience really solidifies the time we spend in labs, and
lectures and tutorials. And we remember more of that theory because we put
it into practice

So how does it all work? Well the internal structure of Vertical Research can
be illustrated with a simple visual
Vertical research, as the name suggests applies a vertical theory of education
whereby professors, graduate students, undergraduate students, and high
school students come together to work on research projects
This contrasts with the horizontal structure of learning commonly followed in
classrooms where students work with peers and have peer support
The vertical structure provides young learners the opportunity to engage and
work with students at higher levels in the education system and professors,
and these opportunities expose students to different learning experiences.
At the top of the chain, the Principal investigator (usually a professor)
oversees the research project
We can see that the breadth of the Technicians and Sponsors sections is
significantly greater to accommodate multiple Vertical research groups

So as a graduate student, where do you play a part in this?

Your position is vital because as graduate students, your exposure to research
projects is more diverse
Within Vertical Research, you would be project managers and leaders and
your role would be to guide the direction of the group
There are many benefits of joining. If you've ever wanted to dabble into an
area of research that you've always kind of been interested in but never
actively pursued, this could can be a pathway for you to connect with likeminded individuals in the right environment
There is also great autonomy over the work that is done. I know that many of
you have families and jobs as well as school, so you can control how often
and how long you meet for
If you're looking to join the industry in the future, an experience like this can
be valuable because it shows employers that you took initiative and
undertook leadership roles in unconventional settings

If you're planning to pursue a Ph.D and eventually become a professor with a

teaching role, you can draw on this experience to strengthen your abilities as
an instructor by referring back to the mentor-mentee relationship

On the back of the sheet, you can find a list of current projects that Vertical
Research has ongoing
Alternatively, if there is a research idea that hasn't been proposed, you can
spearhead the effort to start one