Hi! My name’s Eli Senko and I’m currently studying Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

I grew up in the heart of tobacco country in southern Ontario, and grew up working and basically living on farms and rural areas.

From a very young age I had access to as much space as I could ever need, tools and machinery most people would never see let alone use and this really allowed me to develop my engineering skills and eventually end up studying engineering at my dream school.

Personal projects are a massive part of my life and all the little weird things I get up to when I’m left to my own devices really make me the person that I am. A lot of my projects have had to go on hold while I’m studying but I’m looking forward to any time I can get back out to do a little work.

I give a lot of credit to where I grow up. If I wasn’t raised around farms and machinery I don’t think I would ever know how to operate a backhoe, lay a foundation, or frame a house. My interests would certainly draw attention if I wasn’t so remote. The one aspect I think I had to really make up for though is the lack of like minded people or a network like I have in the city. some of the smartest and most capable people I know are farmers, but the closest they get to CAD and precision manufacturing is a sketch on the back of a 2×4 which is then cut freehand.

With this in mind, a lot of the skills I have today I had to learn on my own. One of my best traits in my opinion is how I don’t have a problem admitting when I don’t know something. I’m excited to really, because it means I get to learn. I love to learn new skills, ideas, techniques. If you were to ask me what my goal for being at Waterloo is, I obviously am excited to work towards a career in a field I’m passionate about, but also just being able to learn new ideas that I wouldn’t really be exposed to on my own.