Ruby Sinclair has one year left of an undergraduate degree in mechanical and materials engineering at Queen’s University’s Smith Engineering and based on her achievements to date, her future is bright.
As Chief Technical Officer of the Queen’s Biomedical Innovation Team (QBiT), Sinclair has worked on a low-cost microfluidic iodine deficiency diagnostic chip; a non-invasive jaundice detection tool; and a 3D-printable, body-powered prosthetic arm intended for survivors of the ongoing conflict in Myanmar. She has also been named co-captain of QBiT for her upcoming fourth year at Queen’s.
After her second year, Sinclair earned a Cansbridge Fellowship, which she used to spend the summer working in South Korea for a sports technology startup, despite never having travelled abroad and speaking no Korean. She calls it “one of the most valuable experiences of my life.”
While there, Sinclair reignited her passion for visual art, something she had let go of amid university admission and the pressures of schoolwork. She hopes to encourage more artistic expression among other engineers.
As a Zenith Fellowship recipient, Sinclair helped design a traction mechanism for a lunar rover and co-authored a proposal for an experimental intraosseous drug delivery trial in zero gravity, to provide better medical treatment in space.
When asked why her projects vary so widely, Sinclair says she chooses based on who she will get to work with. “It's really just about being inspired by the people on the other side and wanting to learn something from them,” she says.
Sinclair also mentors other students and advocates for inclusion and wellbeing in engineering education. In recognition of this work, she received the inaugural Claudette MacKay-Lassonde scholarship from Polytechnique Montréal last year.
Her desire to help others led to the creation of a handbook for first-year Queen’s engineering students after completing her own first year, when she felt overwhelmed and struggled with work-life balance. She turned that experience into a website full of practical advice and tips that reached 1,000 views in its first 24 hours.
Sinclair is still thinking about her next steps, but her ultimate goal is to wield enough power in the engineering industry that she can create real change. “I would love to be at the helm of a company that is at the forefront of engineering, but also modelling what it means to engineer for humanity and for good.”
