By David

December 2, 2021 at 4:34 pm

Here at J-CAD Inc. we understand just how important creative young minds are to the future of engineering and to the future of our world in general – almost everything we rely on to keep society running needs engineers!

As an engineer by trade with decades of experience, our CEO wanted to give back to the engineering industry as a whole, and to support innovation in up and coming engineering students. As such, we were very happy to act as the primary / platinum sponsor for the 16th Annual Ryerson University Engineering Competition which ran for two days on the 20th and 21st of November.

Below you can see screenshots from the competition homepage and sponsorship page:

Screenshots of Ryerson Engineering Competition website

The 16th Annual Ryerson Engineering Competition brought together over 200 engineering students at different stages of their degrees to compete in eight distinct engineering competition categories including:

  • Junior Design – A collaborative team event involving junior engineering students. Competitors aimed to create a working prototype that showcased a practical solution to a real-world problem in society
  • Senior Design – As above, but for senior engineering students in the last two years of their degrees
  • Consulting Engineering – Competitors in this category were faced with a real world problem they needed to provide an optimal and practical solution for to a panel of judges
  • Programming – Students were challenged to create an industry-quality software engineering solution to a technical problem
  • Engineering Communication – This competition focused on the ability of students to identify a current technological process or issue, then to clearly communicate their viewpoint to a layperson audience through strong arguments
  • Parliamentary Debate – With minimal preparation time, this competition required students to debate an engineering stance, either defending or refuting a resolution which they had only just learned about
  • Innovative Design – Focusing on research, feasibility and design prototyping, competitors in this category had to apply their knowledge and creative thinking skills to improve the design of an existing product, or fulfill an unmet need for a product in a new and innovative way
  • Re-engineering – Competitors in this category used their skills in product design and innovation to take an existing product and redesign it for a completely new purpose

These competition categories aimed to give students real world problem solving experience. They enabled them to apply the skills and knowledge they have learned in their degrees with limited time and resources and helped to develop their creativity and design skills, preparing them to be the innovative engineers of the future!

The top three teams for each of the competition categories have the opportunity to compete in an Ontario wide engineering competition.

Our CEO’s presentation

As the primary sponsor of the competition, our CEO Jason was given the opportunity to run an interactive session with the competitors. Jason has a vast amount of experience working as an engineer both for major multi-national companies, for himself as a freelancing engineer and CAD designer, and then as a business owner with over 40 staff through JCAD International.

Jason chose to share his experience of creating and running JCAD International as a business that functions both globally and remotely and which has allowed him to work in a location-independent way where he sets his own working schedule.

Networking opportunities for students

As well as preparing a presentation for Ryerson’s students, the event was a great opportunity for students to network with Jason, learn more about the industry, and have their burning questions about working as an engineer and running a business answered!

Some images from the event

Photos from the event will be added to this article when we receive them in the next few weeks.

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