Engineering Team Wins Atlantic University Competition

The four-member team from the UPEI Department of Engineering has won this year's Atlantic Engineering Student Competition, beating out eight other teams from the region. Daniel Palmer, Hannah Sutherland, Caleb Curtis, and Gabriel Landry took first place in the team design category of the competition held in Halifax recently.

The challenge was to build a machine that would propel itself off a table, fall to the floor, and then continue to go the farthest. UPEI's machine went a full half metre beyond the closest competition. Daniel Palmer says it was very exciting to be part of the competition. "This has taught us a lot about what it is to be an engineer. Having to start without prior knowledge of the challenge and complete a task in a very short time-frame is routinely expected of a professional engineer. Being able to do this convinced me that I made the right career choice."

Professor Don MacEwen, Chair of the Department of Engineering is not surprised at the first-place finish. "We all should be very proud of our UPEI engineering students. They have already demonstrated that students from our university are second to none. I would not be surprised to see them place first or at least very high at the national level as well," he says.

This Atlantic win, a first for UPEI, gives the students a chance to represent UPEI at the National Engineering Student Competition. The team is now fundraising to pay its way to the Nationals to take place in Montreal from March 9 to 12.