The Benefits of Engineering Design Competitions

During student orientation week at the University of Manitoba, Dean Emeritus Doug Ruth used to tell incoming classes, “Don’t miss 50% of your education by attending 100% of your classes.” After a short pause, he would qualify that statement by encouraging students to take advantage of learning opportunities, like engineering design competitions, that are found outside the classroom. Engineering design competitions complement the engineering curriculum by exposing students to complex and interdisciplinary projects that would otherwise not fit within a semester-long course. Such projects motivate participants to realize ideas, apply the knowledge acquired from university courses, and solve real-world engineering problems. This procedure helps students appreciate the tradeoffs of their design decisions in order to respect constraints and meet the specifications of a complex system. Moreover, such competitions provide practical experience as participants conceptualize, design, test, and iterate through the design flow steps needed to realize the desired results.