Engineering Physics is a highly social and closely knit group of well-rounded students who often excel at a variety of activities from music to individual and team sports. A class size of 60 students per year promotes a collegial environment among the student body, with opportunities to get to know each other well and work together in both team-based courses and extracurricular engineering challenges.
- UBC E-Racing is the Engineering Physics-based competition team dedicated to development of an electric vehicle to enter into local AutoCross races against gasoline-powered cars.
- UBC Orbit, with a strong Engineering Physics contingent, is a student design team dedicated to the design, development, and operation of nano-satellites known as CubeSats. The team is currently building ALEASAT, an Earth observation satellite that can be used by radio amateurs to support disaster relief operations. With support from UBC, the Radio Amateurs of Canada, and the European Space Agency’s Fly Your Satellite! Programme, they are in the process of building and testing ALEASAT with an aim to launch it in a few years.
- UBC Solar is an engineering design team that designs, tests, and builds solar powered electric vehicles. They operate on a 2-year design cycle, and focus on in-house design and fabrication with the objective to build a solar-powered vehicle and compete internationally at Formula Sun Grand Prix 2019.
- UBC Rapid creates their own rapid prototyping machines to go head-to-head against commercial devices.
- Team Snowstar and Team Tread, two previous competition teams with strong Engineering Physics backing, entered into NASA-sponsored competitions.
With access to state-of-the-art fabrication equipment including machine shop water-jet laser cutters capable of printing parts directly from computer drawings into wood, plastics, steel and other materials, as well as support from the Engineering Physics and Physics & Astronomy programs, Engineering Physics students do well in putting forward strong efforts in any competition imaginable.
Part of the legacy of Engineering Physics is to provide areas for students. Workspace is available in the Engphys Project Lab, and there is a penthouse study and social area comprising the entire top floor of the Hebb Building at UBC. This scenic space, removed from the hustle and bustle below, provides an ideal environment for students to gather, study, relax, and participate in numerous social events.