In November, the Lassonde Engineering Society hosted the York Engineering Competition (YEC), one of the largest student-run engineering competitions in Canada. The event hosted more than 250 student participants across three weekends, tasked with working in teams to solve an open-ended challenge over the course of six hours.
The winning YEC teams headed to the Ontario Engineering Competition last weekend at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., to compete against top teams from other Ontario-based engineering schools.
Four of Lassonde’s seven teams placed in the top three positions and, of those, three will be going on to compete nationally at the Canadian Engineering Competition this March at the University of Waterloo.
The teams are:
- Programming (second place): Julia Paglia, Shawn Verma, Josh Abraham and Amer Alshoghri;
- Senior Design (second place): Michael Tabascio, Konrad Kaczor, Chandler Cabrera and Jacob Samson;
- Re-Engineering (second place): Koroush Toghrol and Emily Secnik; and
- Debate (third place): Erin Corrado and Aryaman Doctor.
“I feel like we learn a lot of technical skills in our classroom, but we don’t get a lot of insight into solving real-world problems,” says Emily Secnik, president of the Lassonde Engineering Society. “As a student, it’s all about learning at these competitions and there are no repercussions if something goes wrong. It provides an outlet for students to expand their knowledge and also have a lot of fun.”
Jeffrey Harris, assistant professor and Lassonde Engineering Society faculty advisor, describes these competitions as “an intensive form of experiential education.” He says, “Students learn to experiment, fail quickly, and learn from their mistakes so they can improve their designs. In the process, they build camaraderie and develop an identity as an engineering student.”
For more information, visit the Canadian Engineering Competition website.