On August 18, students from technology-related programs shared their final year, final term projects with family, faculty and industry partners at Conestoga’s Summer Tech Showcase.
Woodworking Technology student Jordan Gage spent over 200 hours to build an acoustic guitar from a number of different wood species, including spruce, African ebony, curly maple, rosewood and mahogany.
The event involved over 100 students who filled the atrium and second floor labs of the Cambridge campus. Students spent more than two hours at display tables demonstrating their projects to visitors while explaining the scope of work involved in completing them. The projects capture the full set of skills acquired by the students throughout the course of their programs, which range from mechanical engineering to woodworking technology.
Judges were also on hand to interview students who were recognized as having the best final year projects in each of the program areas. These projects are eligible for the Mastercraft Award, which dates back to 1980 and recognizes student achievement in program-related skills.
Jasmine Dosanjh is among the first cohort of students to complete Conestoga’s Bachelor of Interior Design and the first recipient of the best final year project for the program. Dosanjh created a design for the expansion of Desire2Learn’s office space at the Lang Tannery building in Kitchener’s warehouse district. In developing her design Dosanjh had to consider a number of factors including building codes, historical features of the space and the client’s expectations. Her plans for the project are extensive and include detailed specifications for demolition, electrical mapping, ceiling detail, wall construction, floor plans and costing.
“One of the biggest challenges was the scope of the project,” explained Dosanjh. “For other classes and projects I worked with smaller spaces. The proposed expansion at the Tannery is 20,000 square feet. This has been a lot of work, but it feels like a huge accomplishment.”
IT Innovation & Design students Laura Hillier, Shawn Olson, Veronika Sosnowski and Stephen Campbell were recognized for their work on the website redesign for Motivation Minders - a retailer which offers personalized jewellery lines. The group paired programming and design skills to improve user experience on the site and to convert website visitors into buying customers. The greatest challenge for the foursome was time. They worked on a total of nine features for the site (which included a product database, search function and login feature) and only had a week to develop each.
An acoustic guitar, built by Woodworking Technology student Jordan Gage, was also among the best final year projects. Gage picked up his love for woodworking in high school and admits to being extremely picky about details. His finished piece, which he estimates took close to 200 hours to complete, includes intricate inlay work and incorporates a number of different wood species including spruce, African ebony, curly maple, rosewood and mahogany.
Other projects on display included a multirotor for power line inspection during disaster recovery efforts; a mobile app to connect the services of small to medium-sized businesses with customers; a design for an automated parking system and a wireless, aerial surveillance platform for flying a small quadcopter.
When determining the winner of the Mastercraft award judges considered innovation, creativity, skills and quality. It was Gage’s acoustic guitar that took the top prize. The award, worth $1,000, will be presented to Gage at Conestoga’s fall convocation ceremonies.