Jeff's news came as a shock. My mind went completely blank before the news sank in ever so slowly.

Jeffrey Aho, a former classmate who was part of my precious Mechatronics 2009 class that I had started university with in September 2004, had passed away on Thursday. Jeff and I were not especially close, but we crossed paths many times. Jeff was very opinionated so in conversations (often becoming heated debates), it was easy to feel his strong presence. He always had such a passionate spirit for Engineering and student politics with engaging discussions on the old Tron09 Forum, class parties, and involvement with FEDS. It was just last weekend that we ran into each other at OEC where he was competing in the Parliamentary Debates!

No matter how many technological advancements there have been over the years, fundamental human problems still exist like poverty, education, and health care. Suicides also remain one of the problems that humans prefer to tuck away as a taboo issue. There is no reason why we are still losing such young spirited people! If you were beside me right now, Jeff, I'm sure you too would fume at the ludicrous nature of the world. Losing a comrade to the evilness of suicide is regretful. Us souls that must cope with the numerous challenges life throws at us and face the inevitable realities of the world, fight so many invisible uphill battles as we struggle with holding onto those threads that attach us to life.

Leaving your last Facebook message, "Jeffrey Aho is sorry", my heart goes out to you, Jeff, as I can only imagine what battle scars you've endured before losing the will to live. My heart also goes out to all your family and close friends as you will always be missed.

For all of us who have had a chance to encounter you in our lives and whom you've left footprints on our souls - In our hearts, the memory and spirit of Jeff Aho will always exist. May you have found peace now that you are released from this war called life.

This past Friday and Saturday, I spent most of my time volunteering at the Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC) 2010 held in Waterloo. I helped out with Registration on Friday at the Delta Hotel in Kitchener, as well as the Junior Design Competition on Saturday which was held on campus at the University Waterloo.

OEC ran this past weekend literally from Friday afternoon Registration to the closing Saturday Banquet. The senior design and consulting competitions ran overnight Friday until Saturday morning. I was a bit surprised that they ran the competitions overnight. As Engineering students, I guess we are already used to pulling all-nighters on projects, lol. XD

It was largely second year UW Engineering students running the show for OEC 2010. The leadership group was young, but definitely displayed a lot of potential. There were also many first year volunteers on the team. I found it very exciting to see such young students so involved. It was also fun to meet again familiar faces amongst the competitors, OEC Executives and Directors, in addition to getting to know some new faces amongst the volunteers.

There were more teams and schools involved than I had anticipated. In contrast to the Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC) 2008 which I had also volunteered for (Junior and Senior Design Competitions), the scale of OEC was larger involving many universities across Ontario, including competitors from Ryerson University, Laurentian University, Royal Military College of Canada and much more. CEC 2010 will be held at the University of Toronto this March. Since I'm in Waterloo, it doesn't look like I'll make it to that one. I also won't be in Waterloo this summer either, but for those around, there's always the Waterloo Engineering Competition (WEC) 2010.

And a fun fact that I learned: Competitors were funded by their EngSoc :D

Competition results and Banquet photos are available on the OEC 2010 website :)

What more is there to say... Engineering competitions are fun and exciting! Observing the team dynamics was incredibly amusing - it makes me wish I had been a competitor during my earlier undergrad years.

I've again turned on comments moderation. It's ironic how the only valid comment happened to land in the approval queue and the spammy ones came through easily. XD

Even though I won't blog daily, I'll check the site daily, so comment moderation should still be quite efficient and hopefully won't discourage commenting. :)