Engineering design contest winners put skills to national test
A group of senior engineering students will be off to Montreal next month to participate in a national competition, an event that will put their design skills and ingenuity to the test.~
Sante DiCecco, Ryan Smith, Kevin Turley and Ryan Hunt recently placed second in the Ontario Engineering Competition held at the University of Western Ontario, earning them a berth in the national competition to be held at McGill University, March 10 to 13.
“It was certainly one of the biggest accomplishments of my life,” Hunt said of his team’s strong showing in London, where they competed against 16 other universities from across the province.
When they arrived at the competition, the students were presented with a hypothetical scenario: an earthquake has devastated large portions of Peru, leaving thousands of people without essential services. Their task was to design a system that could restore water and electrical services to a small hilltop village, as well as a method of transporting food supplies to the community’s inhabitants.
Over the course of eight hours, the students created a model, designed a working system all within the budgetary guidelines they were allowed, and made a presentation that was impressive enough to convince the contest judges. A team from Conestoga College came in first.
As its members prepare for Montreal, the Windsor team is getting a lot of support from campus colleagues.
“Our team is set to compete and we are hoping they will do very well representing the University of Windsor and Ontario in this national competition,” said Sarah Drake, the chief returning officer of the Engineering Student Society.
— Stephen Fields