march 2009 issue
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Student Column
Schulich Students Bring Home Gold
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BY JEREMY KOOYMAN |
BY JEREMY KOOYMAN
U of C Student Columnist
(Engineering)
With several weeks of classes under their belts, you would think students would have settled into mundane routines, drifting from lectures to labs in a homework-induced daze. But you’d be wrong.
These past several weeks have triumphantly displayed results from many students’ co-curricular efforts, with regional and national recognition from the recent Western Engineering Competition and the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race.
Braving the formidable Saskatchewan winter, a busload of Schulich students arrived in Regina on Jan. 21 to compete in the 2009 Western Engineering Competition. Separated into six competitions, Schulich School of Engineering students asserted their dominance in three of them, taking home two gold medals and one bronze.
A junior design team made up of second-year students Dustin Bahler, Paul Boone, APEGGA student member Agnes Soos and Zachary Dunnewold applied their knowledge from a first-year ENGG 253 design project to construct a Rube Goldberg (chain reaction) machine. The machine snuffed a candle, turned on a light, transported 500 millilitres of water 30 centimetres horizontally, and separated an egg into shell, white and yolk.
It’s not quite done — it also putted a golf ball into a cup. All this with only four hours of build time.
Come presentation time the machine performed admirably, completing the necessary steps without faltering or requiring human intervention — an accomplishment that could be claimed by only a small number of the teams competing in the category. The U of C team’s efforts earned it first place.
The engineering consulting team of Kevin Chernenkoff, Neha Gupta and APEGGA student members Jared Bouma and Rick Enns employed unconventional research tactics to create a plan addressing social and environmental issues with Regina’s public transportation system. Highlights of their proposal included an advertising campaign tapping into the social fervour surrounding the Saskatchewan Roughriders CFL team. The students also gathered suggestions from the source — by riding the transit system for hours while conducting impromptu interviews.
The consulting team’s commitment was rewarded with a well-earned first place — and an announcement that Regina City Council will review the proposal and possibly even implement its suggestions.
Becoming an unwilling underdog after losing his co-presenter days before the competition, APEGGA student member John McDonald overcame this adversity and was awarded bronze in the engineering communication competition. His presentation was on the social, environmental and economic constraints surrounding autonomous robotics.
Communication is a category dear to Mr. McDonald. He is, after all, VP of communications for the U of C Engineering Students’ Society.
Schulich students banded together each evening and demonstrated to all other westerners what it truly means to be a team — taking home the highly coveted spirit award in the process. This accomplishment was aided by stickers and temporary tattoos of the Engineering Students’ Society logo. A student or two even appeared for breakfast covered head-to-toe in the ubiquitous logo. The trophy became emblematic of the pride each team member holds for the school.
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LOOK MOM, NO BRUISES |
A Tough Act Follows
The legendary Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race celebrated its 35th anniversary, Feb. 5-7, organized by the very school that started it all — the Schulich School of Engineering. Hosted in Red Deer, the city of its origin, the event made use of the Innisfail Ski Hill.
This year’s Schulich School of Engineering GNCTR team, named Save a Horse, Ride a ’Boggan, took third place overall, assuring attendees that they hadn’t lost touch with the true nature of the event.
The overall ranking of the toboggans was based on quality of concrete mix, design (including consideration for steering, braking and superstructure), quality of the technical report and presentation, and ski hill performance.
While there were several close calls — like the University of Alberta losing control and almost taking out the timing booth or the University of Manitoba (which went on to take first place overall) deciding to not brake at the end of a run — the weekend remained largely accident free.
Schulich took the award for top time of the day, posting a run of 12.42 seconds at a speed of 38 km/h, the fastest of the weekend. If such numbers seem tame, remember — this is a 133-kg concrete sled carrying the required five team members down the hill to a prompt but safe stop, without any of the catastrophic failures the event is known for.
Despite the competition being all about numbers, GNCTR is considered a bastion of engineering spirit. Organized and run by students, GNCTR attracted 15 university teams from across Canada and 20 volunteers including enthusiastic alumnus. “Everyone puts in a lot of effort prior to the competition,” said Tim Herrler, the team’s VP of construction. “With all their preparation done, people arrive and find themselves able to have a really great time because there’s very little left to do. They just have to show up and sled.”
This year competitors and spectators were able to crowd around a large fire pit at the top of the hill to stay warm between runs, sometimes chanting the popular Any Three Words song or participating in a drum circle.
A highlight of the evening activities this year was a 1970s cabaret, a tie-in to the anniversary of the event. Students arrived wearing anything from flashy white disco suits to orange one-piece tracksuits. There were even a few Kiss impersonators making sure their presence was known.
Ashley Sceviour, E.I.T., one of two co-chairs on the GNCTR organizing committee, said her favourite moment of race day was when “all competitors went to the bottom of the hill and carried up every single bale of hay.” This gracious motion meant that each competitor carried one bale and saved the 20 volunteers from carrying over 300 bales.
After having such incredible experiences at WEC and GNCTR, a common complaint among participants was that they didn’t want to return to their normal school routines! Unfortunately, the academic calendar waits for no one. While Reading Week in mid-February shined like a beacon of hope, midterm has arrived with full force.
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