Alumni Profiles

Saad Ahmed BEngM '08

What made you decide to come to UOIT?

There were a number of reasons why I decided to accept UOIT's admission offer ahead of other well established Canadian post-secondary institutions. First and foremost was that UOIT extensively uses technology as a support tool to deliver education to its students. This was a radical step away from the traditional approach at the time - high school teachers used to frequently forbid the use of the Internet for school assignments and projects. The second reason was an opportunity to help shape the founding traditions and culture of an institution that will surely last the next hundred years at the very least. Finally, throughout the admission application process Scott Barker, who was an admissions officer at the time, was a great help and a pleasure to interact with. It was unlike my experiences with the alternates at the time.

How did your UOIT experience prepare you for your current endeavors?

The dual nature of the Bachelor of Engineering in Manufacturing and Management program has without the shadow of a doubt been the greatest asset thus far and I am sure it will continue to be. Today, I look after the operations of a company in the prototyping, serial in-house manufacturing and high-volume overseas production for wire and cable manufacturing. For all the technical aspects of any design or product, I rely on my engineering background whereas for product pricing and process evaluation, I extensively rely on the management component of the program. My business will continue to depend on these skills for the foreseeable future.

What are some of your favorite memories, classes, and professors at UOIT?

For me the greatest adventures at UOIT were always about the design projects that we had to undertake almost every semester. My thesis advisors Dr. Ghaus Rizvi, Dr. Remon Pop-Iliev, Dr. Ebrahim Ismailzadeh and Dr. Ibrahim Dincer have been always great inspirations and role models to look up to. I was always lucky enough to receive some of the best unbiased and constructive critique of my work. To me the final design thesis was the most interesting, intense and entertaining engineering course that I took while at UOIT because it required the use of all of the combined knowledge I had gained over my five years as a student. For all the tedious calculations, endless hours and countless experiments, I will gladly retake the course in a heartbeat if the opportunity ever arises. Similarly, Marketing I and Marketing II were also very interesting courses, especially given how close the in-class material is to its real world application and how good marketing targets consumer in the most bizarre ways.

What is your current company profile and future growth plans?

The company that I operate is called MSASH Inc. and our core specialty is design, development and manufacturing of custom cable assemblies for industrial and commercial applications. The company was incorporated in July 2006 and since that time we have also launched consumer electronics cable under the brand name cable5. What originally started off as a basement operation by a student has now grown into a real Canadian business. Our newest office location has opened just west of the Toronto Pearson International Airport in Ontario. Since its inception MSASH has shipped tens of thousands of custom products all over the world. Over the past three years, MSASH Inc. has seen rapid growth with the addition of number of local and overseas contractors.

The short term goals include the company certification to meet ISO 9000 and AS 9100 standards, while adding new rapid prototyping and molding facilities for increased local capabilities. In the long run, we plan to set up our own high-volume production facilities both onshore and offshore to meet the ever increasing demand in the North American marketplace for customized wiring harness solutions.

Would you like to come back to UOIT?

Certainly, if the opportunity ever arises, I will be more than glad to return.