UNBC has earned a silver medal during its first-ever performance at the Canadian Engineering Competition. The event was held in Montreal and attracted more than 150 of Canada’s top engineering students.

UNBC was represented by four, second-year students from its Environmental Engineering program:
Pitcured at left: Jen von Gradulewski (Cranbrook, BC), Marie Manchester (Toronto, ON), Lani McPherson (Nelson, BC), and Belinda Li (Windsor, ON). The students earned the second-place finish in the consulting engineering category.

“Our task was to come up with a solution to lift sections of a bridge so that the ball bearings on the top of the columns could be changed,” says Belinda Li. “We factored in things like traffic congestion and noise pollution in our response. I think the judges were impressed with our simple design and our presentation. None of the other winning four-person teams was all women.”

The Canadian Engineering Competition is the largest student engineering competition of its kind in the world. Participation is extended only to those students who perform at a high level in regional engineering competitions. The UNBC team also scored second place at the western Canadian competition in Calgary in January.

“It speaks volumes about our program and the quality of our students when they  perform so well against well-established engineering programs from big universities across Canada,” says Ron Thring, who is Co-Director of the Environmental Engineering program with Peter Jackson. “These four students in particular really seem to love what they’re doing and their accomplishment has helped to put our engineering program on the map.”

The UNBC Environmental Engineering program is offered in partnership with UBC. The program is made up of courses from both universities and, upon graduation, students earn a joint UBC-UNBC Bachelor of Applied Science degree.

Contact:
Rob van Adrichem, Director of Media and Public Relations, UNBC - 250.960.5622