McGill Engineering Competition

The McGill Engineering Competition
Contact	engineering.competition@mcgilleus.ca

The McGill Engineering Competition (MEC) is an annual interdisciplinary event providing all McGill engineering students the opportunity to test their skills in varying competitions. The goal of MEC is to foster relationships between students by providing a setting for professional engineering practice as well as networking opportunities.

About

MEC is the qualifying competition for representing McGill at the provincial level in the Quebec Engineering Competition, where competitors will have the chance to move on to the Canadian Engineering Competition to compete at the national level. MEC takes place over a weekend during the Fall semester where over 120 students compete in categories designed to challenge students in varying aspects of engineering. In addition, MEC also hosts MEC Lite, a condensed version of the competition, in the Winter semester.

Categories

Senior Design

This category is the cornerstone of MEC. Teams of four are given twelve hours to develop a prototype that will meet requirements disclosed during the day of the competition. Participants will be judged on the relevance and originality of their project as well as their ability to present it to the public and the judges.This competition is open to students having completed at least 60 credits.

Junior Design

The junior design competition is open to students having completed less than 60 credits. Just like the senior design competition, participants, in teams of four are asked to solve a problem in a limited amount of time using basic engineering skills. The day of the event, teams will be provided with the specific material that is to be used for their design. The team evaluation will be based on the quality of their prototype as well as the quality of their presentation.

Innovative Design

Participants table during the event and present innovative products or concepts they developed as a solution to a problem of their choice. This competition is highly technical and participants are expected to carry out a market research and feasibility studies as well as draw a business proposal for their product beforehand in order to promote their solution.

Engineering Communication

In this category, competitors alone or in teams of two are required to explain a complex engineering process or product to judges. The purpose is to popularize complex, intangible and abstract concepts in order to make them understandable to technical and non-technical judges. Participants are judged on the clarity of of their presentation and on their critical analysis.

Re-Engineering

Teams of two participants are asked to improve and optimize existing products so that they meet new constraints and requirements. Competitors will be evaluated on the originality of their solutions, their technical knowledge, as well as their public speaking skills.

Impromptu Debate

Two teams of two participants debate a topic that will be disclosed the day of the competition. Teams are judged on the relevance of their arguments as well as their public speaking skills and their ability to build a clear and structured reasoning.

Consulting

Participants, in teams of four are given five hours to elaborate a complete solution to an engineering related problem exposed the day of the competition. Competitors must consider social, environmental, economic, and technical aspects of the problem in their proposal and will be judged on the quality of their solution as well as their ability to clearly present it to the jury.

Scientific research presentation

In this category, graduate students are required to present a Master’s or Doctorate project. This competition consists of a poster presentation in front of the public followed by an oral presentation in front of judges. Competitors will be evaluated on the innovation and technical feasibility of their project as well as the clarity of the presentation and their ability to speak in layman’s terms. The quality of visual material will also be evaluated.

Registration

Registration opens several weeks before the competition is scheduled to take place each year. For up to date information on registration and scheduling visit the MEC Facebook page or website.

Committees

Each year MEC is organized and run by student committees selected at the beginning of the Winter semester. If you're interested in joining the MEC organizing committee keep an eye out for applications on the EUS Pipeline!

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