On March 26th Conestoga College hosted the local IEEE Student Presentations Contest for 2009. This competition offered the IEEE Student members the opportunity to exercise their written and verbal communication skills, expressing ideas related to engineering.
The event, which was organized by the second year IEEE student members in Electronic Engineering and their faculty advisor, was held from 6 pm to 11 pm at Conestoga’s Doon Campus in Kitchener. The evening began with a relaxed twenty minute pizza-and-sandwich dinner fare that was enjoyed by all 28 attendees and judges.
At 6:30 pm the order of presentations was determined and the “sophisticated” timing system, using neon coloured poster paper, was explained by the time-keeper: Dr. Michael Toll.
For this competition there were three entries from University of Waterloo and three entries from Conestoga College. Each project was allotted 15 minutes in presentation time and 5 minutes for a question period.
From University of Waterloo, the three presenters were:
Hasosen Cai, who presented the project: “The Automation Process of Producing Solar Cells from Raw Silicon Wafers”, which introduced the process of turning raw silicon wafers into solar cells.
Matthew Chan, who presented the project: "Combat Robots" where he described the biped combat robot and outlined its initiate design concepts.
Derek Bennewies, who presented the project: "A Discussion and Analysis on the IEEE UW Student Branch Windmill Design”. Derek outlined the planning, marketing and execution of the recently held Windmill Design Competition which was organized by the University of Waterloo IEEE Student Branch.
From Conestoga College, the three teams presenting were:
Team ICIS (James Walz and Eric Singh) presented the project: "Automotive Radar System for Collision Avoidance". This system is an affordable, aftermarket microwave radar-based active safety system that alerts the driver of an imminent collision with a preceding vehicle. Team Avident (Steve Mercer, Srdjan Damjanovic and Andrew Henry) presented the project: "The Monarch". This system is a fully functional 3D tracking and locating system for use in an indoor environment.
Team Zeco (Tristan Singleton, Andrew Murdoch and Jon Hamel) presented the project: "The Pathfinder". This is a navigation device for use by the visually impaired in public buildings and facilities.
The three judges who most graciously volunteered their time for this event were: the IEEE KW Section Chair, Amir Khatibzadeh, Jack Cole from the ITCT degree program at Conestoga College and Matt James from University of Guelph. The judges reached their decisions after a brief discussion break and announced the following winners:
First Prize, $500: Team Avident, "The Monarch", from Conestoga College
Second Prize, $300: Team Zeco, "The Pathfinder", from Conestoga College
Third Prize, $200: Team ICIS, "Automotive Radar System for Collision Avoidance" from Conestoga College.
The evening concluded with the presentation of gifts to the judges as well as to the participants from University of Waterloo who were each given a software package in thanks for their participation.
All who attended spoke of having a great time and the undergraduate students who were present at the event indicated a great interest in ongoing participation in future events for the IEEE.
-- Jane S. Carr