March 10, 2009 News

Con U engineering students at high velocity

You ‘don’t have to get shit-faced’ to learn and have fun

by Johnny North

Concordia's engineering students crafted this Eiffel tower re-make.
PHOTO Johnny North

It took the Engineering & Computer Science Association three days to put up their greatest accomplishment during National Engineering Week: a 42-foot-tall Eiffel Tower model that stands in the atrium of the EV Building.

“The best [event] by far was the Eiffel Tower because of where it is located in the EV building,” said Anthony Tanzer, a second-year Engineering student who helped build the tower, while CTV, Global and TVA were filming.

“So many people, Concordia students, Concordia faculty, or just people walking through going to the metro, […] get to see it and see how Concordia engineering does cool projects like that.”

For seven days, the ECA hosted over 10 events that included a speaker series, a game night, a movie night, ‘lunch & learns’ and much more.

Alex Brovkin, president of the ECA, said the engineering program is “very diversified. You have to cater to different cultures, different values and different interests. I think we had a better turnout. I think by adding new topics every year, we’ll continue to make it exciting for students.”

“As much as we are university students, not everything is alcohol-related,” said Tanzer. “There are many events you don’t have to get shit-faced at.”

This year National Engineering Week was centred on the theme of entrepreneurship. Brovkin wanted to give engineering students something that wasn’t just “pure engineering.” Speaker Raymond Luk, founder of consulting firm Flow Ventures, addressed around 70 students with his talk on entrepreneurship on March 9.

“People were really excited about it,” said Brovkin. “People stayed afterwards and talked to him. There was a lot of energy in there.”

The week ended with the annual bridge building competition that saw around 300 people get involved—the most of any event during the week. Twenty-nine teams from across Canada and the United States competed.

“They had to build a bridge out of sticks and dental floss,” said Marc Lindstrom, VP External of the ECA. “They were rated on originality, on the niceness of the bridge and on how much weight the bridge can hold.”

CEGEP de Chicoutimi’s “Les impontdérables” placed first, despite the fact that the school had only one team competing. Concordia’s “Bridgesickles” placed fourth, which was the highest finish of the three Concordia teams.

Lindstrom was pleased with how smoothly the week went after all the hard work of the ECA.

“The last activity, when it was done, I was like, ‘Finally it’s done!’ It was a long week, I didn’t get too sleep much. ”

For the full results of the 25th Bridge Building Competition, please visit http://csce.ecaconcordia.ca.