November/December 2019
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In this Edition
The 16th Annual Engineering Headshave……………………………..………..3 UAEC Competition 2019…………………………………..…………………4-6 Winter Wonderland…………………………………………………………....7 How to Stay Warm During the Canadian Winters………………………….…8-9 What “Twelve Days” gift should you give based on your zodiac sign? …….….10 November December Photo Highlights……………………………..……….11-13
Our Publications Team Abby Paul Bryana Ruggia Joanna Bibangco Mokshita Sharma Roanne Andaya
Cover page photo courtesy: UAlberta Twitter
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The 16 Annual Engineering Headshave th
By: Abby Paul
The 16th Annual Engineering Headshave was held on November 20, 2019. Beginning in 2003, the Headshave began as “Razored for Ron�, a headshave organized by Louis Bezuidenhout in support of Ron Wicentowich (father of engineering students Gary and Graeme), who had been diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, Ron passed away on February 11, 2004, but the Engineering Headshave has continued in his memory to raise over $400 000 in support of the Alberta Cancer Foundation. This year, $3 679.69 was raised in support of the Alberta Cancer Foundation. Thank you to everyone who supported this event - start growing your hair out for next year!
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UAEC Competition 2019
By: Bryana Ruggia
Earlier this month, the University of Alberta’s Engineering Competition took place in ETLC and DICE. Over 100 students participated in the 7 different competitions, vying for a spot representing the UofA at the Western Engineering Competition held in Saskatoon in January. This years competition was sponsored by the Young Pipeliners Association of Alberta and the theme was “History”, so every challenge in the competition had an aspect of history; whether it be a historical backstory or modernizing historical ideas. Let’s take a look at the competitions and hear a bit from some of the winners. Junior Design This year our junior design teams had been commissioned by the Engineering King to design a prototype for his new catapult to defend the engineering quad against any attacks. This prototype, made solely of rubber bands, popsicle sticks, tape, and any other office supplies that could be found, had to launch a projectile over a 50cm wall and go at least 1m beyond. With only 4 hours to design, create, and test their inventions, the competitors were feeling the tension. The teams of no more than 4, were being judged on their accuracy, functionality, and efficiency of their design. The winners of this year's competition was “Screws Loose”, consisting of Keeley Hatch, Alyson Katerenchuk, Autumn Borselling, and Alysha Ambrosio. I reached out to the winners and asked them about the competition, what their idea was and and difficulties they faced. “Once we discovered the situation and the obstacle we needed to overcome, we decided we wanted to keep it simple. Alternatively, we did not plan our design beforehand but went directly into constructing a design … Throughout the competition, we found our greatest difficulty when building the apparatus was creating a strong, fundamental base. ...Overall, we were thoroughly surprised with the outcome and enjoyed every minute of it. We are genuinely excited to represent the University of Alberta in Saskatoon in the new year.” Senior Design In the Senior Design competition, A shipping company was having a problem with their shipping methods and commissioned the senior designers to design a mechanism to transport shipping containers with an emphasis on safety and reliability. When the 6 hours of design and construction was over, the teams had 15 minutes total to prove to the judges
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that their mechanism was the best, with 5 minutes to test the mechanism, 5 minutes to present their ideas, and 5 minutes for the judges to ask any questions. Through the judgments on the integrity if their shipment after transportation, their conveyance of ideas in their presentation, the design process, and if they applied an engineering mindset towards the problem, the winners were Malav Naik, Devon Saroya, Jagbir Kullar, Adesh Sangione of the “Speedy Singhs”. Congrats guys! Communications A lesser known section of the competition is the communications competition. I personally had no knowledge of the competition so I enlisted the help of this years winner, Angus Mathieson, to help out in explaining. According to Angus “The goal of the communications competition was to describe a technical process or issue in terms that the general public could understand and discuss the social, economic, environmental and political ramifications of your topic”. The theme of the competition was how “Engineering Changes Lives” so competitors had to choose a topic of their liking that corresponds to the overarching theme. Angus explains that all competitors enter the competition blind, unaware of the topic and are unable to prepare for the 30 min presentation prior to the competition date. But he says that the time allotted to picking a topic and preparing your presentation is more than enough. “As I started preparing my presentation I realized 30 minutes did not feel like enough. I ended up cutting out a lot of stories and anecdotes, as there was not enough time... The largest difficulty I had was choosing what to cut and what was worth keeping.” Angus had done his presentation on “How Oil Changes Lives”, being an oil and gas proponent. He discussed the importance of oil, Alberta’s history pertaining to the oil and gas industry, as well as the social, economic, environmental, and political ramifications of the industry, focusing on Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). He goes on to say “If I had one tip for future competitors, it would be to slow down. As with any presentation, your delivery should be clear and concise. One should prioritize the audience understanding the basics over explaining everything you know on the topic… there is never anything too simple to explain. Take your time to educate the audience in everything they need to know, before you jump into the technical process or issue.” Programming For all of you programmers out there, you might just want to look into the Programming competition next year. This year’s teams were part of a software company that were enlisted by a shopping company to create a mobile app that can recognize and item and relay the price of the item to the customer. This program had to be able to access a phone’s camera, take a picture, recognize at least 5 objects, and have a price output associated with these objects. And if you think that that’s hard, well, it is! The teams were judged on not just their programs ability to perform the task, but also by the code, the overall look, and the short presentation that each group had to give. With all that said,
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congratulations to the winners Garrett Eleniak, Tait Richards, Ethan Pretula, Sam Popham of “Gentoo Gang” for all their effort put forth. Consulting This year’s consulting engineering competition focused on evaluating a potential redesign of the Canadian Pacific Railway taking into account aspects such as financial, environmental, social, and safety. This year’s winners were Sepehr Hosseini, Drake Ottacher, Findlay McCormick, and Guilherme Szpak of “Sunglasses at Night Engineering” (SANE). Sepehr Hosseini (on behalf of SANE) talks about some of the groups difficulties in the competition: “Analyzing this complex problem from multiple angles brought time pressure upon our team since we only had six hours to produce a five page report; however, our team handled this difficulty with creating a precise timeline and focusing on items that were critical from our perspective (such as safety, practicality and financial feasibility).” After overcoming the intense time pressure, the team managed to develop a proposal for the company to invest in newer technology which would ultimately save money and, more importantly, save the lives of at-risk employees, earning them the winning title of the consulting competition. Re-Engineering Have you ever looked at an object and thought “I could design that way better”? Well that is the entire purpose of the Re-Engineering Competition. This year, teams had 6 hours to take any wheelchair design and improve upon it by changing its functionality. The teams were judged on their presentation (as there was no practical part to the competition), their reasoning of how their functionality was superior, as well as any calculations to go along with it. Congratulations to this year’s winners, Isaiah Ling and Nathan Kristensen of “ReImagine Engineering” for their stellar wheelchair redesign. And Finally… Congratulations again to this years’ winners and great job to all those that participated. These competitions are far from a walk in the park but if you’re thinking of participating next year, don’t get discouraged! Take a tip or two from this as well as past competitions and prepare yourself accordingly. From everyone who participated, all say it’s a great experience and one that you definitely won’t regret.
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Winter Wonderland
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By: Bryana Ruggia
As is the Edmonton way, winter is upon us, but this doesn’t mean that you have to stay inside your house all day and wistfully wish summer was back! Edmonton is a beautiful city that embraces the chilly season and has an abundance of activities, both indoor and outdoor, to pass the time. If you’re up to bracing the cold, get off your butt and try ice skating at Victoria Park Iceway or Hawrelak Park. Don’t have skates? No problem, head to Totem Outfitters on 99 St south of Whyte Ave for reasonable skate rentals for either the day, weekend, or week! If skating isn’t your thing, you can go to any dollar store and grab a cheap sled that you can take to a nearby park hill and relive your childhood. When it gets dark, Crestwood Community puts on their Candy Cane Lane walk of all the houses that get together and decorate extravagantly for the holiday season. All they ask is that you bring something to donate to the food bank in this time of giving. Or if you’re having dinner on 104 St, north of Jasper and you’re up for a walk, head up to 104 Ave and check out the Neon Lights Museum, full of vintage neon signs accompanied by informative plaques of each sign. For those of us looking to stay indoors and forget the cold exists, there’s many places to have a ball. Many bars down Whyte Ave offer paint nights, karaoke, trivia night, and many other events. Don’t want to go to a bar? Go see a cult classic movie at Garneau Theatre or a unique piece at the Princess Theatre, walk through the abundance of art galleries on 124 St, learn to swing dance at Sugar Swing Ballroom, try your hand at one of the many escape rooms, or sit down and challenge a group of friends to a board game tournament at The Hexagon Board Game Cafe. As you can see, there is so much to do in Edmonton during the winter, and it doesn’t just stop there. There’s always more festivals and exhibits coming in the New Year, like the Ice Castles at William Hawrelak Park and the Ice on Whyte festival, so keep an eye out for those and stay warm.
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How to Stay Warm During the Canadian Winters
By: Roanne Andaya
Winter is approaching, which means heavy snowfall and temperatures that are well below 0. In the cold, commuting to and from school and in between classes can be rather chilly, especially if you’re new to Edmonton, so here are 5 ways to keep warm during the winter season.
1. Layer Your Clothing When choosing what to wear in the morning, always be sure to check the weather and how it progresses throughout the day. If the weather starts off chilly, and progresses to be warmer, layer your clothing to make sure that you’re warm for the chilly morning and night, but aren’t too hot in-between. If it looks like the weather is within the -20 to -30 region, you can double up your pants or socks to make sure your lower half is full; maybe put on an extra sweater in the morning to make sure you’re warm. Remember: it’s always easier to take off layers than it is to add on layers.
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Keep your Fingers and Toes Warm
Even if you’re entire body is layered up, if your fingers and toes aren’t kept warm, frostbite can occur, especially in low temperatures. One way to keep your toes warm is to double or triple up on socks and wear footwear that is appropriate for winter. Making sure that your wear either mittens or gloves is also important so that your fingers don’t get cold. Heat packets are also another effective way to keep hands and feet warm: just stick them into your pockets and shoes to add a little bit of extra warmth.
3.
Wear a Hat
Nobody likes wearing hats for fear of bad hair days, but wearing a winter-appropriate hat (like a toque) during winter can help you keep warm. Not only does it keep your ears warm, but it also ensures that heat doesn’t leave our bodies through our heads. Our heads are the parts of our bodies that are generally more commonly exposed during winter, so making sure they’re covered goes a long way to making sure we’re warm if we’re outside for an extended period of time.
4.
Bring a Hot Drink
To add a little bit more warmth when you’re outside, try drinking a hot drink. Not only will it help keep you hydrated in the cold weather, but it can also make you feel warmer on the inside. Plus, holding a hot drink can help warm up your hands!
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Keep Moving
Staying still in the cold makes you get colder faster. If you move around, your body generates more heat, and allows for you to stay warm. Sitting down allows heat to leave your body via conduction, and therefore allows heat to exit your body. So if you’re feeling cold, try walking on the spot and move your body to ensure that the heat stays. Remember to stay warm during the break. Happy holidays!
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What “Twelve Days” gift should you give based on your zodiac sign? By: Abby Paul Sign Aries (March 21 – April 19) Taurus (April 20 – May 20) Gemini (May 21 – June 20) Cancer (June 21 – July 22) Leo (July 23 – August 22) Virgo (August 23 – September 22) Libra (September 23 – October 22) Scorpio (October 23 – November 21) Sagittarius (November 22 – December 21) Capricorn (December 22 – January 19) Aquarius (January 20 – February 18) Pisces (February 19 – March 20)
Festival Lords A-Leaping – Leap out of 2019 with them. Golden Rings – This one actually might work out okay. Turtle Doves –Bird Fact #1: Turtle doves are Britain’s only migratory pigeon or dove. Pipers Piping – Make sure they are at least 10 metres away from a building before they start playing. Ladies Dancing – But they only dance the Cadillac Ranch and nothing else. Partridge in a Pear Tree – Buy your partridge now and get 50% off any pear tree. Drummers Drumming – They were all out of guitarers guitaring. Geese A-laying – But Do! Not! Disturb! The! Geese! As! They! Are! Laying! They are vicious and unremorseful. 8 Maids A-Milking – Now with dairy-free options. French Hens – Also known as une poule. Calling Birds – This song is pretty bird-heavy, huh? Swans A-Swimming – Bird Fact #2: The typical swimming speed of a swan is 0.7 m/s.
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PHOTO HILGHLIGHTS
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