Samar Zia - BEng. Materials Engineering

My name is Samar Zia, and I am an undergraduate in the Department of Materials Engineering. I would like to thank Mr. Schull and Ms. Yang for providing me with the opportunity to receive and benefit from the Schull Yang International Experience Awards. Receiving the award allowed me to pursue a co-op with professor Alexandros Charitos at TU Freiberg in Saxony, Germany. I participated in one of my mandatory internships (remotely) at TU Freiberg because of their strong background in non-ferrous metallurgy, which has been a passion of mine since I started my undergraduate degree at McGill. This has been my second co-op in partnership with the university, and I will be doing my third and final co-op with the same team at TU Freiberg in the upcoming fall semester.

TU Freiberg (TUF) is one of the top public universities of technology in Germany, and they have an old-standing background in materials engineering and mining research. I decided to work with them because I thought it would help me develop a foundation in materials engineering research, which is something that I want to pursue professionally in the future. My co-op was initially planned to be in person, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic I had to conduct it remotely. My job this summer was to aid the hydrometallurgical team at TUF to conduct literature reviews on existing research regarding the zinc electrowinning process. Our goal was to create a foundation of knowledge to find direction for future research. My day-to-day work primarily reading and analyzing the literature that existed on the topic of lead anode corrosion in zinc electrowinning tankhouses. I then would discuss my findings at weekly meetings with my supervisor at TUF. This eventually lead to a detailed literature review with my personal recommendations on how to proceed with the research at the institution in the future.

Despite being initially planned as an in-person internship, I conducted my work remotely from Montreal due to the ongoing pandemic. This provided a specific set of challenges that I am certain we are all well acquainted with now. The funds afforded through the award supplemented my general cost of living in Montreal while I carried on with my work. Despite the setback due to COVID-19, I found this experience to be hugely enriching with regards to my personal academic growth. The highlight of this co-op for me has been learning about a brand-new topic in the field. I aimed to broaden my horizons and try to learn about a new topic that I could potentially pursue in the future. Although this research topic is within my academic field of materials engineering, hydrometallurgy has been a specific branch that I have not had the chance to immerse myself in fully. This research opportunity has been a wonderful way for me to expand my academic horizon in terms of the materials engineering subjects that I have research experience with. My past co-op had a similar scope but was related to microwave reduction of carbonates, which presents entirely different challenges and areas of knowledge and expertise. I can now safely say that I am well acquainted with several different fields in materials engineering, and I think this multi-faceted understanding of the field will greatly benefit me as I (hopefully) pursue a career in materials engineering research in the future.

Thank you, Mr. Schull and Ms. Yang, for your generous support and for making this experience possible.