UWindsor’s Engineering Summer Camp campers, counsellors, and student volunteers pose for a photo in the atrium of the Centre for Engineering Innovation at the University of Windsor on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (ANGELA KHARBOUTLI/The University of Windsor)
By Lindsay Charlton
The countdown began.
Ten, nine, eight…
Mr. Incredible, strapped into his vessel, launched from the third floor of the Centre for Engineering Innovation and raced down a zipline, landing in a tower carefully engineered for his safety.
Tasked with creating a popsicle stick tower to catch action figures zipping down from the third floor, campers from UWindsor’s Engineering Summer Camp gathered in the atrium Friday to put their designs to the test.
“I hope this works,” one camper said while setting up his team’s creation with precision.
The idea was to ensure the figures would have a safe return to the structures built. With the help of engineering students, campers spent two days coming up with their zipline design as well as a landing zone or an area of return in their towers for the minions, princesses and superheroes sent through the sky.
UWindsor's Engineering Summer Camp campers watch as their figurines speed down the zipline in the atrium of the Centre for Engineering Innovation at the University of Windsor on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (KYLE ARCHIBALD/The University of Windsor)
The camp-goers eagerly watched, waiting to see whether they would stick the landing.
“They got pretty creative — one had a garage door, another had a landing area on top, and this one, they wanted the figure to go inside the tower and slide out safely to the other side,” said Mike Konstantino, engineering outreach program coordinator.
Campers from two age groups — 8 to 9, and 10 to 12 — participated in the experiment.
Konstantino, who organizes and runs the Engineering Summer Camps with the help of counsellors and volunteer engineering students, said campers took part in five hands-on STEM activities during the program, including working with robots, designing roller coasters, a parachute egg drop, 3D printing and the zipline.
“In our Mechatronics lab, they used a tablet to make a robot use a marker to write their name, then got to take their name design home, along with completing other tasks. They designed roller coasters where a marble had to go up and down a hill, loop through a hoop, and land in a paper cup across the floor. They even designed a parachute egg drop where the egg had to survive being dropped from the third floor in CEI,” he added.
With towers tested and superheroes, minions and princesses all landing safely, the Engineering Summer Camps wrapped up three weeks of fun.
It was the first time the camps ran an expanded three-week program, and it will be offered again in future summers, giving every camper a chance to play engineer for that time.