York’s engineering society sending two teams to provincial competition at U of T
Michael MacDonald
Contributor
Engineering students took over Vari Hall last weekend for an intense, caffeinated, but friendly competition.
The Engineering Society at York held their annual York Engineering Competition (YEC) on January 13 and 14. Undergraduate engineers spent their Friday night scribbling blueprints, eating cold pizza, and chugging energy drinks as they solved an engineering problem and built a working model.
Each team of four had from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. to build a structure that met strict specifications, and presented their built designs for a series of tests in front of a judging panel the next morning. Winning teams won an all-expenses-paid trip to the 2012 Ontario Engineering Competition, hosted in early February at the University of Toronto.
Sustainable development was the theme this year. Competitors had to build with a strict material budget and make designs that could be understood and operated by a developing nation’s local population that lacked a strong technical knowledge.
This year junior teams (first and second year) had to create a mechanical bridge capable of accommodating both water and land traffic. The senior teams (third and fourth year) had to build a water-driven turbine capable of conducting electrical energy.
The winner of the junior category was team “PUTS.” Chang Bok Lee, Jimmy Tang, Justin Ng, and Prabhnoor Kainth designed a bridge that operated with a hydraulic water pump fashioned out of a syringe and straws.
The senior category was won by team “Veterans.” Ragavan Thurairatnam, Aysar Khalid, Mark Girin, and Joshua Sideris, all of whom have experience on the provincial level of competition, designed the winning water turbine.
Teams learned how to work together with limited time and limited everyday resources, like duct tape and Dixie cups.
Shailja Sahani, president of the Engineering Society at York, says these constraints exist so competitors can apply academic knowledge to real world problems.
“Everything is like the real world but on a scaled down level,” she says.
The stakes are real at the YEC. The Ontario Engineering Competition is a prestigious and expensive event; each competitor must pay $275. Jordan Bailey, a member of senior team “Team Sunshine,” observed how competitive engineering tends to be.
“We are all competitive,” he says, “we all want to win.”
With many teams eyeing the prize, it’s surprising the competition isn’t more cut-throat. Isaac De Souza, a member of junior team “Mech,” says the competitors are all friends away from the YEC. There’s a sense of unity at the building-stage. “Tonight we are competing,” says De Souza, “but it is also pretty collegiate.”
The night of the 13th may have felt like a caffeine-induced pressure cooker, but when the designs were presented before a panel of judges the next morning, there was strong camaraderie.
On Saturday, Sahani asked the competitors for criticisms and observations. There was friendly joking banter in the crowd, but at the core of the discussion was a communal desire to make the competition better. The lighting, the cold food, and imprecise directions were all major criticisms, and all were duly noted by organizers for next year.
Some designs succeeded more than others. The bridge by junior team “Tek” malfunctioned on stage. After leaving the stage, they discovered their problem was a soggy stringpulley from the simulated rain used in the demonstration. They hauled their structure to the men’s room, spent 15 minutes holding it underneath the hand dryer, and successfully pulled off their presentation.
“You either throw up your hands and give up, or you go to the men’s room, dry it off, and try again,” says team member Yantesh Dhir.
What was the secret to senior team “Veterans” success? After the awards ceremony, the group agreed on the successful engineer’s core principles: “Passion, pride, belief.”
In early February, teams “PUTS” and “Veterans” will represent York at the Ontario Engineering Competition—an event that York has never won.
Regardless of what happens next month, all the competitors and organizers have shown that York’s engineering program is filled with dedicated students, driven to build a better and more sustainable future.
Despite design hiccups or facing a competition yet to be won by this school, York engineering students are not deterred. “Engineers,” remarks Dhir, “never leave the job undone.”
With files from Ernest Reid
