Friends of Engineering celebrates U of M teams’ accomplishments
On Thursday, October 25, 2012, close to 200 people attended the University of Manitoba student competition teams’ celebration hosted by The Friends of Engineering (Manitoba) Inc. in the Engineering and Information Technology Complex.
Refreshments were served in the atrium while guests looked through the teams’ displays of their finished projects and well-deserved awards. Student members of each team were on-hand including UMSATS Nanosatellite, UMSAE Aero, UMSAE Baja, UMSAE Formula, UMSAE Formula Electric, UMATT ¼ Scale Tractor, and the UMCASI Glider.
Guests were then invited to the Design Lab in E2-229, EITC, where Mr. John Bockstael, President of Bockstael Construction and Chair of Friends of Engineering, and Dr. Jonathan Beddoes, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, welcomed everyone to the celebration. Guests were treated to a series of short presentations highlighting the hard work that goes into all their projects. Team representatives described the competition, key designs, build phase, testing, lessons learned, and accomplishments for their respective competitions.
After highlighting all the projects, the students from all the teams gathered at the front of the room and invited Mr. Mal Symonds, P.Eng., a recently retired U of M Engineer-in-Residence, to be recognized for his tireless efforts and dedication to the competition teams throughout his tenure at the University of Manitoba. His emphasis on building-breaking-rebuilding, integrated design teams, and professionalism were evident in the quality of all the projects.
The presentations were followed by Dr. Gerry Price, P.Eng., President and CEO of Price Industries and member of the Friends of Engineering Board, highlighting the importance of the competitions to the engineering education at the university and to Manitoba industries at large. Price congratulated the future industry leaders on their accomplishments and encouraged them to continue to work hard as they establish their legacy in Manitoba.
Finally, the guests were treated to tours of all the competition labs to see where the magic happens. The tours provided a venue for the guests to ask questions and also learn how they can help future competition teams by providing the necessary resources to take these designs to the next level.
Special thanks to the Friends of Engineering for organizing this event to celebrate all the student competition teams. It is very encouraging to all the teams to see this kind of support, interest, and excitement from industry advisors.
For more information on the Friends of Engineering (Manitoba) Inc., visit www.friendsofengineering.ca