Creative ideas brought to life at engineering design competition at Oshawa’s Ontario Tech
Published June 2, 2023 at 4:10 pm
From the creation of a functional and compact handheld multi-tool to a better way to install streetlights, creative ideas were dreamt up and brought to life last week at the 2023 Design-a-thon competition hosted by the Ontario Tech Design League student club.
Held in-person for the first time since 2019 and judged exclusively this year by four women in engineering, the event is a time-limited 36-hour ‘computer-aided design’ (CAD) competition where student teams of up to five people, choose between two challenge and propose a solution. The teams – 40 Ontario Tech engineering students from three faculties got together for the competition – brainstormed their project, used CAD software to design it, and 3D-printed their design to bring it to life for the presentation.
CAD software is something all first-year Engineering students at Ontario Tech learn how to use in their Engineering Design course.
Organized by the Ontario Tech Design League student club and supported by the university’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, the event connects design-minded students with industry partners while simultaneously engaging them toward overcoming real-world engineering challenges.
Open to students from all six Ontario Tech faculties, this year’s event also featured students the Faculty of Business and Information Technology and the Faculty of Science.
The two challenges (either mechatronics-focused or beginner level) took place in Ontario Tech’s ACE Climatic Wind Tunnel. 3D printers were made available to the teams, along with access to a team of mentors for support.
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Organizer Garie Kala-Amathan thanked all the participants and volunteers, judges and sponsors for helping make the event happen. “We had a great turnout and we’re glad we were able to hold this event during National Engineering Month. We couldn’t have done it without our generous sponsors, and without the support of our all-female panel of judges.”
The two top project teams in each category received medals. Winners earned a $200 Amazon gift card; runners-up were given a one-year subscription to Wolfram Language, a proprietary, general high-level multi-paradigm programming language developed by Wolfram Research.
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