March 21, 2006

UNBC has earned a silver medal during its first-ever performance at theCanadian Engineering Competition. The event was held in Montreal andattracted 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 vonGradulewski (Cranbrook, BC), Marie Manchester (Toronto, ON), Lani McPherson (Nelson, BC), and Belinda Li (Windsor, ON). Thestudents earned the second-place finish in the consulting engineeringcategory.

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

The Canadian Engineering Competition is the largest student engineeringcompetition of its kind in the world. Participation is extended only tothose students who perform at a high level in regional engineeringcompetitions. The UNBC team also scored second place at the westernCanadian competition in Calgary in January.

“It speaks volumes about our program and the quality of our studentswhen they  perform so well against well-established engineeringprograms from big universities across Canada,” says Ron Thring, who isCo-Director of the Environmental Engineering program with PeterJackson. “These four students in particular really seem to love whatthey’re doing and their accomplishment has helped to put ourengineering program on the map.”

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

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