{"id":77592,"date":"2021-06-24T09:21:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T13:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=77592"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:31:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:31:46","slug":"vandesande-engineering-iron-ring","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/vandesande-engineering-iron-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Grads 2021: Carleton Engineering Student Earns Iron Ring 60 Years After Grandfather"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Great Grads 2021: Carleton Engineering Student Earns Iron Ring 60 Years After Grandfather\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

For Carleton University Mechanical Engineering<\/a> student Margot Vandesande, this year\u2019s graduation will be a special kind of family affair. Sixty years after her grandfather, John McCalla, graduated from Carleton\u2019s first Engineering class in 1961<\/a>, Vandesande is preparing to receive an Iron Ring and a degree of her own.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a really cool feeling, especially how it lines up so well (with the anniversary),\u201d says Vandesande, who remembers her grandfather passing on some early engineering basics to her as a child.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAt the cottage when we\u2019d build decks, he\u2019d talk about the weight distribution and how you need supporting beams. I remember him saying when I was little: \u2018The triangle\u2019s the strongest shape\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Margot
Margot Vandesande and her grandfather John McCalla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The ring serves as a reminder of an engineer\u2019s obligation to live by a high standard of professional conduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in Belgium but raised in Canada\u2019s capital, Vandesande debated between pursuing her engineering degree<\/a> at the University of Ottawa or Carleton. During EngFrosh<\/a>, the Fall Orientation program for first year Faculty of Engineering and Design<\/a> students, Vandesande quickly found a group of long-term friends and knew she\u2019d made the right choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEngFrosh makes you a lot less nervous because everyone is so excited,\u201d says Vandesande. \u201cIt takes a load off, because everyone is like, \u2018this is going to be fun\u2019. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of the lecture hall and lab, Vandesande became passionate about the need for increased equity in the industry during her first year in the program when she attended the annual Conference on Diversity in Engineering<\/a> organized by the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John
John McCalla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf everybody has the same perspective, then you\u2019re always going to get the same answers,\u201d says Vandesande.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cDiversity is a great way of innovating because you\u2019re going to have those different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Vandesande continued to build on this focus on diversity and equity when she spent two summers working with Virtual Ventures<\/a>, a not-for-profit organization run by the faculty that offers nationally-recognized technology and engineering programs for youth from junior kindergarten to Grade 12.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Margot<\/figure>\n\n\n

Engaging Indigenous Youth in the Fields of STEM<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Vandesande worked on Virtual Venture\u2019s InSTEM Outreach program<\/a>, an initiative based on the Akwesasne First Nation<\/a> and geared toward engaging Indigenous youth in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math by integrating Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vandesande was originally drawn toward studying Mechanical Engineering because she was interested in designing prosthetics. But during her time in the program, she gravitated toward thermodynamics\u2014the branch of physics that focuses on the study of heat and transfers of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Margot<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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This shift culminated in Vandesande\u2019s capstone research project with the Building-Integrated Thermal Energy Systems (BITES) group, where she worked on designing a geothermal energy system to heat a building. That project sparked her plans to pursue a Master’s<\/a> of Sustainable Energy Engineering and Policy at Carleton in the coming academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to find those new ways of saving energy where people don’t actually need to change that much, because I think one thing that we’ve seen over the years is that people don’t like changing their habits,\u201d says Vandesande. \u201cIf you can adapt by making buildings or retrofitting buildings to be more environmentally friendly, people don’t need to change their habits at all but you will save a lot of energy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cCarleton has given me an idea of what I want to do in the future and all the tools to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Faculty of Engineering and Design is proud to support the recruitment and retention of women students by fostering an inclusive environment to support the next generation of industry leaders. Find out more about supports for an environment where everyone can thrive by subscribing to the Women in Engineering and IT Program mailing list: https:\/\/carleton.ca\/engineering-design\/wie-and-it-program-mailing-list\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"Margot<\/figure>\n\n\n

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For Carleton University Mechanical Engineering student Margot Vandesande, this year\u2019s graduation will be a special kind of family affair. Sixty years after her grandfather, John McCalla, graduated from Carleton\u2019s first Engineering class in 1961, Vandesande is preparing to receive an Iron Ring and a degree of her own. \u201cIt\u2019s a really cool feeling, especially how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":77637,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1931,25],"cu_story_tag":[1930,1918,1923,1927],"class_list":["post-77592","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-social-innovation","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_tag-equity-diversity-and-inclusion","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design","cu_story_tag-graduate-studies","cu_story_tag-indigenous"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97278,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77592\/revisions\/97278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=77592"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=77592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}