Alumni Spotlight: Wanying Shi

After graduating with a civil engineering degree, Wanying Shi worked as a project manager for ZE Power Engineering on distribution and transmission projects. Although she enjoyed aspects of her job, she wanted a position with greater responsibilities and that was more focused on sustainable energy applications.

While researching potential master’s programs, Wanying discovered UBC’s Master of Engineering Leadership in Clean Energy Engineering. She was impressed by the calibre of the alumni and the directions they’d taken their careers after graduating. She also liked the idea of getting a degree from UBC, a globally recognized leader in sustainability.

Finally, the hybrid nature of the degree appealed. 

“I didn’t want to do a master’s degree that was solely focused on technical engineering or research,” she says. “I liked that the MEL included some business and management courses.” 

Exploring the world of clean energy

Wanying intentionally approached the 12-month program with an open mind to where the degree might take her.

Looking back, she says that the Energy System Fundamentals course taught by Dr. Tony Bi, director of UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre, and a course on energy policy, sparked her interest and proved to be important stepping stones to a new career path.

“Dr. Bi’s course introduced me to life-cycle assessment and how to analyze emissions from a broader perspective,” she says. “For example, our group project compared life-cycle emissions from well to wheel for an electric vehicle and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.”

Wanying says that the business and leadership courses were interesting, and that learning more about specific topics in the summer business bootcamp – like accounting and finance – have “definitely been helpful” in her new role.

As part of her decision to embrace opportunities, Wanying joined several on-campus student clubs, including 180 Degrees Consulting @UBC and UBC Strategy Consulting Initiative, to meet people and gain experience in new areas.

She also worked as a part-time research assistant at UBC on an embodied carbon project. 

“I reviewed the existing classification systems for construction products for whole building life-cycle assessment benchmarking to develop a new nomenclature for construction products and improve the consistency of these assessments across building projects.” 

A job offer in January

Wanying wrapped up the last of her coursework in December 2022 and had a job offer in hand less than a month later. She packed up her life in Richmond, BC, and moved to Calgary, Alberta, to work as a technical carbon solution analyst for Anew.

Nine months later she moved to her current position at S&P Global, where she is working as an energy transition GHG analyst. In her first 12-month rotation at the firm, she conducted in-depth research into carbon emissions, modelling the life-cycle emissions of the natural gas and liquified natural gas industries. She recently started her second rotation in the energy transition consulting group.

Wanying fully embraces the challenges and opportunities of her job, particularly enjoying that it allows her to conduct detailed technical analyses that are providing the information that her firm’s clients need as they transition to a lower-carbon future.

“It’s not easy to change your career path, but the MEL gave me a solid foundation to do so,” she says. “I gained the knowledge and skills I needed to pivot into a job where I can use my technical skills and interest in sustainability to make a difference. I really appreciated the freedom I had to explore different areas and learn many new things.”