WESST

In 1993, at the Western Engineering Competition and Conference hosted by the University of Saskatchewan, student representatives from all the accredited Western Canadian Engineering Schools within four provinces decided on the need to form an alliance of all their undergraduate students’ societies. Thus, this alliance became to be known as the Western Engineering Students’ Societies Team (WESST). The purpose of WESST is to better student societies through an informal association of information and a sharing of ideas to learn about people and schools.

WESST is the organization that represents the western region for the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES). Currently, there are ten member schools who participate in WESST events such as WEC, WESST Retreat and Olympics, and the CFES Congress. WEC is the Western Engineering Competition and is open to all engineering students of the member schools. The categories of the competition range from design to impromptu debate. Each year, different interested schools bid to host the event at the annual general meeting at WESST Retreat. At WESST Retreat, informal sessions and discussions are held to review the structure, mandate, and existence of WESST. Also, the new incoming executive is voted in by the school representatives. Each school sends 2-6 delegates to WESST Retreat depending on where the retreat takes place, and their financial ability. The same applies to the CFES Congress. Each year, delegates from engineering schools from all over country gather for a week in a chosen city in order to discuss current issues involving Canadian engineering students at student-run information sessions, roundtables, and plenary. The delegates are chosen by each school’s own engineering student society, most often based on the level of active involvement, spirit, and the society’s ability to fund travel expenses.

Currently, WESST is working on expanding its services to better service engineering students directly. Some ideas and works in progress are a Western Canadian Engineering Students’ semi-annual publication, WESST bursaries and student funding, dedicated regional and provincial corporate sponsorship, and an archive of past WEC winners and hosts. With the right resources and much dedication, WESST can become a society that can serve, direct, and support all engineering students in Western Canada.