A student pitches his donation bin redesign to judges at last year’s competition.
Student creativity, ingenuity put to the test in annual competition
What: Engineering student drawing and design showcase
Who: First-year students, community judges and members of the public
When: Friday, November 29, judging begins at 3 p.m.
Where: Richard S. Hallisey Atrium, Engineering Management and Education building, 1137 Alumni Avenue, UBC Okanagan, Kelowna
Nearly 400 first-year engineering students will unveil their design projects Friday as they wrap up their first semester at UBCO’s School of Engineering.
The design showcase is part of the APSC 171 Engineering Drawing and CAD/CAM course all first-year students take. This year, the students are working on two different projects: improving newly designed donation bins by Rangeview Fabrication, a major manufacturer in North America, or designing innovative devices that can improve the quality of life for students living and learning at UBC.
The annual event draws media and community interest thanks to the novel design concepts developed by the students. Last year, the students and their professor, Ray Taheri, garnered national and international headlines as they proposed retrofit options for donation bins that reduced the risk of fatalities.
“In the past, our students have developed innovative designs in important areas such as homeless personal belongings carts and donation bin retrofitting,” explains Taheri. “Most importantly, they are discovering that engineering can improve the lives of those around them.”
APSC 171 teaches students design concepts and engineering drawing skills enabling them to analyze situations and design solutions. There are almost 60 groups of students and each group will present their design projects at a showcase event on November 29, starting at 3 p.m. Panels of judges from industry, academia and the community will short-list the projects and choose winners in a number of categories.
Nicole Keeler, a second-year civil engineering student who took the course last year, says the real-world nature of the course opened her eyes to the potential impact of engineering.
“It’s really interesting that we get to go out and solve things that are affecting people’s lives right now,” she adds.
