UPEI’s Engineering Design Expo challenged students to provide real-life solutions

Second-and-third year engineering students displayed their design skills at the annual UPEI Engineering Design Expo and Awards ceremony held April 19. The students, who formed into groups, were matched up at the beginning of the semester, with industry and government organizations-'clients'-that provided them with specific issues in hopes that they could provide real-life solutions.

The four clients included the PEI Department of Agriculture and Forestry (DAF), Ducks Unlimited, PEI Bag Company, and Morning Star Fisheries. The student groups had roughly six months to meet, plan, build, analyze, and present their prototypes to their clients. The Expo then provided a venue to display projects to community members and industry professionals. Engineers PEI judged the projects and presented an award to the team that best demonstrated a high level of professionalism, understanding of the client's problem, and an ability to effectively explain their designs to the general community.

The winner of this year's Engineers PEI Team Design Award was one of two groups that worked with PEI Bag Company with members Jonathan Young, John Thomas McKenna, Alex Hunt, Pam Andrews, and Patrick McKenna. The group was tasked with designing a machine that would partially automate the process of assessing the quality control of the bags produced by the company's Weber 9 machine. Presently, PEI Bag Company has an employee who takes the bags and checks them for quality, before sending them to a second worker. The goal for the design was to automate the tasks completed by the first worker. The group was able to include elements of mechanical, electrical, and industrial engineering in the creation of their machine. Their design solution uses a series of air-powered cylinders, rotators, and mechanical pieces, which helps to stack the bags on pallets. A LOGO (logic) controller controls the sequence for these parts.

Andrews noted a lot of time and effort was put into the student projects, and in the organization of the Expo, which made it such a successful event. 'The projects provide a unique way to develop necessary skills, and help prepare us for our future careers as engineers,' she said. 'A lot of great projects were displayed at the Expo, and I'm proud to say that I worked with a great team on one of them. Winning at the Expo was just an added bonus.'

Stephen Champion, Assistant Professor and Chair of UPEI's Department of Engineering, believes the annual Expo is a great opportunity for the students to come together and showcase their skills and commitment to the profession. 'The students really step up after a long grueling year and demonstrate a very high level of technical capability and maturity,' he said. 'From the perspective of faculty, and as members of Engineers PEI, we are very proud of the way they represented the University and the profession.'

Other student groups also came up with innovative prototypes for their clients, including a portable stream crossing that can be deployed in minutes and can be used by woodlot owners and farmers alike; a restoration project on the current infrastructure at Johnson's River freshwater wetland, reducing the overall workforce dependency through a separation machine; a redesign of a halibut grading table with a photographic grader installed to capture a full fish count, the surface area of each fish, and their rate of growth; and a modification to a halibut tank circulation, by introducing circular flow in rectangular tanks.

First- year engineering students also finished up their year-end projects, and were stationed outside the W.A. Murphy Student Centre on the day of the Expo to demonstrate their work for the Mikinduri Children of Hope (MCOH), a local organization that works to relieve the effects of poverty in Kenya. After meeting with representatives from MCOH, Dr. Andrew Trivett, Associate Professor of the first-year class at UPEI challenged the students to come up with a charcoal press that could produce bricks of charcoal for use in the African country. The students came up with drawings and instructions on how to design their presses, keeping in mind what tools would be readily available to their clients to create these presses on their own. Dr. Trivett mentioned that it was interesting to see the students develop innovative ideas, especially the international students, some of whom grew up in Africa. Dr. Trivett was also pleased to note that, this year, the Department of Engineering saw the largest number of international students enrolled in the program.

Engineering Expo Award Winners:

Engineers PEI Team Design Award-PEI Bag Company (Jonathan Young, John Thomas McKenna, Alex Hunt, Pam Andrews, Patrick McKenna). This award is presented each year to the student design team that best exemplifies innovation, excellence, and professionalism in a client-oriented community-based design project. The winning team will combine creative design ideas supported by in-depth analysis, detailed design documentation and an effective demonstration of concept.

UPEI's Department of Engineering presents communication and analysis awards annually to individual students in their first, second, or third year, who display contribution and excellence in their team environment.

Communication Award -'Generally recognized as the ‘softer' skills including the ability to ‘formulate' and ‘communicate' the chosen design ‘story' using a broad selection of tools including verbal, textual, and graphical techniques. Recognizes that engineering is really the ART of applying science to make a compelling argument with a high degree of professionalism and consideration for public safety.'

Analysis Award - 'Generally recognized as the ‘harder' skills including the ability to ‘understand' the clients problems and ‘analyze' the problems using a broad selection of scientific, mathematical and engineering knowledge. Recognizes that engineers must be scientifically and mathematically capable, with an ability to translate that knowledge and skill into innovative (new territory) solutions with predictable performance. It is this predictable performance that requires a sound understanding of the problem and an ability to use engineering tools and prototyping, to predict the performance and safety of the systems.'

This year's recipients include:

First-year recipients: Evan Ostridge (Communication) and Patrick Alex Wall (Analysis)

Second-year recipients: Pamela Andrews (Communication) and Matthew Gauthier (Analysis)

Third-year recipients: Mitch Eamer (Communication) and Lyle Gauthier (Analysis)