WELCOME TO CUBE'S WEBSITE! 

As we enter the real world, we felt that it was only appropriate to look back at how CUBE has grown to become a large national organization. As of this writing Mark Ebden is currently in the work force, soon to be joined by Ran Gilad completing his last semester. We wanted to provide the members and those interested with a brief history behind our motivation and vision for CUBE.

The idea for CUBE arose in 1997, during second semester of our first year in Engineering Science. At a discussion on the Biomedical Engineering option, the class was asked who was planning to enter the Biomedical Engineering stream. Although half of the class had raised their hand, most did not know what the profession entailed. We started doing some research on our own, looking at various web sites trying to piece together the biomedical engineering puzzle. We quickly discovered that due to the interdisciplinary nature of biomedical engineering, we alone could never truly get a good grasp of what a biomedical engineer does. We needed to speak to corporations involved in the business, tour hospitals and speak to biomedical engineers, and attend conferences in order to speak with researchers in the field. We realized that only an organization could muscle enough persuasion – and so CUBE was born.

CUBE quickly took off. During our first year, only the two of us ran CUBE. Membership was less than 100 people. We initiated the concept of the wine and cheese in order to network with corporations and to know what jobs exist and to whom we should apply. We toured several hospitals and managed to get into secluded areas such as the OR at The Hospital for Sick Children. Having an organization backbone, we were able to bring in speakers such as representatives from medical school admssions. CUBE became so successful, we decided that we needed a full executive to run things properly. During the second year of operations we had a full elected executive and membership was around the 250 level. The size of the club allowed us to seek sponsorship for such events as the annual BMES (Biomedial Engineering Society) conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

The momentum ball just kept on rolling. We formed alliances with the Pre-Med Society and the Human Biology Student Union. Thus were we able to extend our events and activities without duplicating work, in addition to our membership base. Others schools – notably Queen’s, Waterloo, and McMaster showed an interest in founding their own CUBE chapters.

Have we achieved what we set out to do? We believe so. To the active member, CUBE can provide information on all aspects of biomedical engineer: the corporate world, medical school, and academic research. It is important for the undergrad to have a good idea of what the field he or she is interested in is really like.

Good luck to you all,

Mark Ebden and Ran Gilad

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