Edmonton-Members of a team that will be competing against more than 250 students from 13 schools across the West in a design competition say the route to victory will be through simplicity, and could focus more on soft skills than technical ability.
Engineering students Vincent Castonguay-Siu, Josh Michaud, Chris Owttrim and Jonathan DeMong earned the right to represent the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering by winning the U of A Design Competition last year. Their team was the only one to complete an engineering challenge to design and build a device to lift and egg to table-top height then lower it back to the floor in one piece.
Now they're facing their peers at the Western Engineering Competition, being held Jan. 22 - 26 at the University of British Columbia.
The design competition gives teams eight hours to design and build an engineering solution to a specific challenge, and make a presentation 12 hours later.
Castonguay-Siu and Michaud say "soft skills" like the ability to work well as a team, manage time and communicate effectively are vital.
"Part of the trick is figuring out how much time you want to devote to design and how much to construction-it's all up to you," said Michaud, adding that judges score teams, in part, on their planning and how closely they followed it.
All of the team members are studying mechanical engineers and say that their first design course, which gives students a term to design and build a robotic device which is tested in a day-long competition, will serve them well at WEC.
"That first design course is a really good introduction in getting into a a design competition situation," said Michaud.
"It teaches you how to start a project," added Castonguay-Siu. "They kind of throw you in the dark. It makes you figure out what you have to do."
Presentation skills play a major role in scoring at WEC, and the team says they will polish their presentation accordingly.
"One of the benefits of going to this is that you get a chance to do a big presentation. It's an important skill to have," Castonguay-Siu said.
About 20 U of A engineering students are attending the annual event, competing in junior design, communications, redesign, innovative design, consulting and debate categories. Students attending WEC get the chance to network with companies, attend a career fair, and meet with students from Western Canada. If successful at WEC they will move on to the Canadian Engineering Competition and connect with students from across Canada this spring.