草莓污视频导航

Jan. 24, 2014

Young engineers race clock to solve a big problem

Schulich Consulting Team wins Western Engineering Competition

Imagine it鈥檚 8 a.m. and you鈥檙e given a complex technical problem that you don鈥檛 know much, or anything about, and you have until 4:30 to come up with a solution.

The Schulich Consulting Team did just that and came in first place at the in Edmonton earlier this month, beating out 11 other student teams from across Western Canada.

A week before the competition, the teams were given a hint about the problem they would be asked to solve. In this case it was 鈥渟omething about the oilsands,鈥 says team member Anjuli Cheema, who graduates from civil engineering this year. 鈥淣one of us was familiar with oil sands, aside from what the general public hears in the news.鈥

But they got up to speed fast and on competition day, when they were handed their 鈥減roblem statement鈥 about a fictional company first thing in the morning, they got to work.

鈥淲e had to evaluate three methods for managing and reclaiming a tailings pond and present which option would be most viable along with detailed implementation plans, construction schedules, cost estimates and process flow diagrams,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the most work any of us had completed in eight hours.鈥

The next day, the team presented their solution鈥擨n line thickening with thin lift deposition鈥攖o the panel of judges. 鈥淚 was nervous since the presentation is your chance to prove how much you know even if it didn't quite make it into the report,鈥 Cheema says. 鈥淲e were all exhausted mentally from the day before, but had to force ourselves to be at the top of our game.鈥

It worked鈥攃ommunication between team members was key鈥攁nd the Schulich team won. Next up, the team will compete at the March 13-15 at Western University in Ontario. The winner of that competition will go on to compete at the International Engineering Competition.

The events are designed to foster innovation and help strengthen ties between engineers from different backgrounds and industry leaders. 鈥淲e all enjoy how much we get to learn as well as the adrenaline,鈥 says Cheema.

She and her teammates, Aaron Baskerville-Bridges and Brayden Kooistra from chemical engineering and Steven Eidsness from mechanical engineering, are feeling confident about the next round of competition.

鈥淲e will be doing some serious preparation work in order to represent the 草莓污视频导航 well!鈥