PRODUCT LIFECYCLE EXPERIENCE FOR PRE-UNIVERSITY STUDENTS THROUGH A HOVERCRAFT COMPETITION

The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Discovery Program is an annual competition where teams of high school students compete to design, build, and test a remote control hovercraft. The competition exposes students to the manufacturing process, from research and development, through to the product launch. Preuniversity teams from across Manitoba compete to build the hovercraft, write a business plan, and present their work to a panel of judges from academia and industry. The winning teams receive scholarships for postsecondary studies.This paper describes the Discovery Program hovercraft competition and lessons learned from the first four years of the program.