Concordia Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers roars to life after years of inactivity

The Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers (CSME) is back at Concordia University and thriving after the previous mandate ended due to mismanagement. 

CSME's co-president, Hasnain Soni, believes the club is an important space to give students practical engineering experience. 

“Our goal starting off this club was to give students, and engineers in general, hands-on experience in the field and a space to express their experience and creativity," Soni said. "We’re basically redefining what it means to be an engineer." 

After several years out of commission, CSME is back up and running at Concordia, providing a space for students across disciplines to learn, create and collaborate on a variety of projects. 

“We came up with the idea for a club where everyone is invited in. Even if you’re not an engineer, you can come and learn things," CSME co-president Alexandre Vasquez said. "We’ve had film students coming because they wanted to learn how to 3D print their props for plays or movies." 

According to Soni, the group aims to fill a gap in resources mechanical engineering students have access to at the university. 

“You’re gonna see students in the halls; they’re on the tables, they’re struggling trying to get stuff 3D printed in the library, everything’s always booked," Soni said. "They don’t have a space to come in and use their potential, and a lot of stuff we learn in school is very theoretical." 

The CSME’s hub of operation is its lab, located in the B Annex building on the Sir George Williams campus. Inside the room sit rows of computers and 3D printers, tools and soldering stations and a large rack of filaments for printing whatever the group needs. 

The room is also full of personal touches: a large drawing of its bunny mascot, awards celebrating the success of its recent events, a 3D-printed Beyblade arena for its upcoming Beyblade competition and various dollar-store art covering the unpainted walls. The lab has come a long way, according to Vasquez. 

“We didn’t have the shelf, we didn’t have these tables, we didn’t have these computers, these 3D printers as well,” Vasquez said. 

Concordia’s Engineering and Computer Science Association (ECA) funds the society, which oversees the B Annex building and receives a fee levy from every engineering student. The society also receives support from several independent sponsors, including brands like Celsius, as well as charities. The ECA also collaborates with other Concordia University groups such as Women in Engineering. 

“We work on getting independent sponsorships so that we can be more of an independent society and also use those sponsorships to help students,” Soni said. 

However, even the loving decoration from the executive team and support from the ECA isn’t enough to hide the room’s imperfections. In the annex’s basement, the windows are welded shut, which renders the soldering station unusable and the 3D printers problematic. 

“When the 3D printers are running, the melted plastic dissipates into the air, and you breathe it in. When you have a room that’s sealed shut, we have to leave the door open throughout the summer, but it’s not really feasible in the winter when it’s freezing,” Vasquez said. “So we have to leave only one or two running, not all four. Otherwise it becomes a hazard.” 

According to Vasquez, despite the hazard, the group is making due. 

The society recently wrapped up the construction of a mechanical arm, putting its members' theoretical mechanical engineering training to the test. The group is also working on two long-running projects: a prosthetic wrist and an aircraft, nicknamed "the drone," with a wing capable of adjusting mid-flight, which they hope to begin flight testing in summer 2027. 

Arian Imtiaz is the director of lab services at CSME Concordia. He is thankful for the hands-on experience he has gained from the club. 

“I originally came to this club to get hands-on experience and projects, which I got," Arian Imtiaz said. "I worked on this drone, I worked on this robotic arm, and honestly, these projects and the experience they brought me wasn’t even taught in my classes."

The drone is in progress, with a proof of concept taking up the centre of the lab’s table. The adjustable wing is painted pink, both as an inside joke with the ECA team and to raise awareness for breast cancer during October, something that the group has a personal connection with. 

“My director of projects brought it up to me. I was like, ‘this is a great idea,’" Soni said. "We want to use it as a symbol, and promote it while doing rallies and promotions for charity and breast cancer awareness." 

The group’s prosthetic wrist is also a highlight for the group, allowing students to dip their toes into the biomedical field, something Soni mentioned was lacking across Concordia's engineering clubs. 

“It actually imitates the motion of a wrist, so it goes all the way around like a wrist mechanism. We’re gonna make it smaller, but it’s gonna be a compact wrist, and we’re gonna connect it to a prosthetic end,” Soni said. “So it appeals to people in mech who want to go into biomedical engineering.”

All three projects brought in a lot of support for the club, along with several events, and the group has grown from zero members to almost 400 in its Discord server. 

According to director of socials Hiba Babiker, the group is only getting bigger. 

“We’re getting more engagement and more people joining the club, thinking that it’s cool to be in engineering," Babiker said. "It’s not something you would be considered lame for; it’s something that’s fun." 

This article originally appeared in Volume 47, Issue 3, published October 6, 2026.