Engineering students put projects on display

By Bo Ford

Second and third-year Engineering student finally had the day they had been waiting for.

The UPEI Design Expo went last week at UPEI. The student put on six different displays for judges from Engineers P.E.I.

At the first of the year the students were assigned to a company and asked to create a project to cure one of their problems.

The student were given a $500 -1000 budget depending on which company they were working for.

The first two displays were groups paired with the P.E.I. Bag Company.

The first group was asked to reduce the overall workforce dependency through investment in automation for paper bag production. They had to find away to create a project, which would replace a worker for counting out 6 or 15 bags at a time.

The other group was asked to do almost the same thing, except their project made out of wood, metal and computer technology was asked to stack the bags.

The five members of this group all agreed their project covered more engineering then the other projects.

“Our project covered electrical, mechanical and industrial engineering, it really allowed us to work with all three types and learn more as about each,” said group member Patrick McKenna.

This team was also a little different then the others, they had the twins, Patrick and Jon Thomas McKenna, the team agreed they defiantly had the upper hand.

“It was a great experience, we got the computer side of it but we also had to physically build it, there were some challenges to that part, but were here today,” said John Thomas.

Another member of the team Alex Hunt said they were all new to it, but it only helped in the long run.

“It did take us a while to get going, but once we got the ball rolling it was all straight ahead from there.”

Hunt said the drawings really forced the team to work together to get going.

“There were some interesting drawings for the physical model, we just combined a few of them and made them into one.”

The third group was paired with the Department of Agriculture and Forestry. They were asked to build a temporary stream crossing to help allow farmers and wood lot owners to not receive fines for driving over streams and also building permanent structures, which affect water levels.

The group of 12 created a removable bridge, it operates by tractor so it is hauled by tractor, removed by tractor all using hydraulics.

Phillip Curley, is the head behind the students who built the bridge. He said the bridge has been made with hydraulics that are attached to a tractor.

“What that means is the bridge can be picked up with a tractor, but not only that. Your tractor can actually drive away with it. Not only can a tractor drive over it but it also deploys it.”

Lyle Gauthier worked on the project with his group said the fact the tractor hauls it and drives over it make it effective.

“You can leave it over the stream after you drive over it, then at the end of the day after you go back, you can simply deploy it and take it back.”

Evan Getson said with such a big number of people the group was able to excel in all areas.

“We had people who were great welders, another guy who was great with tractors, a good group of drawers, it allowed us to come together as a great team, and a great bunch of guys.”

The only other single group was paired with Duck Unlimited to try and find a way to restore the Johnston’s River freshwater wetland.

Also a group of 12 they created two ideas. The first idea was good but it had one flaw, the speed of the water would not allow the fish to take a break from swimming.

The second idea was to remove the infrastructure in the wetland and reverts in into a tidal salt-water estuary.

As a group they all agreed if they would have had a little more time the first idea would have worked wonders.

Morning Star Fisheries, a company from B.C. that rears Atlantic Halibut teamed with the last two groups.

The first group was asked to modify a tank in which the water flows through in order to improve fish waster removal.

The tanks used by Atlantic Halibut are all rectangular which makes it harder to produce any circulation.

Andrew Smith said the group had no idea about fish farming.

“The project took us some extra work, first semester was all straight research, we had four proposals and put them all together.”

They decided to create a circular motion in the rectangular tank by making curved corners, much like a hockey rink.

“It moves the water in a more circular motion, we have it set so the water knows to keep flowing, this way allows the middle to drain more waste so it doesn’t build up.”

The groups also used a dual drain design, the design allows for as much recirculation as possible.

“It drains 20 per cent of the dirty water, and allows 20 percent of new water to come in. Then it cleans the water so it can recycle as much water as possible,” said Shaw.

The other group of five was asked to find a way to create a grading table.

Halibut grow at different speeds, every few months they need to be graded to see the growth, this way they grow bigger when they are with fish around their size.

Currently the job is done by one work that uses his own preference to choose where the fish should go.

Evan Kennedy said the group introduces more computer technology to grade the fish.

“We modified the current system on how they send one fish down at a time, and instead of a person sorting the fish, we use a camera about the water and a computer to grade the picture to decide where the fish should go.”

Kennedy said they were asked to do this because of the lack of consistency in the size of some of the Halibut.

“It’s true though, if its 4:30 on a Friday afternoon are you going to be concerned about the size of a fish. You might think different then me too, what I think is a bigger fish, you think is a small fish.”

They have also adjusted the table so the workers no longer have to lean over into the cold water, they can no adjust it to their height preference.

“They already said they like are idea and they would like to try it out. Most of all it is going to benefit the workers,” said Kennedy.

Although the students don’t receive any kick back from the projects they created, they all seemed to be okay with it.

“It was all a fun experience, although at the end of the day there is an announced winner, were all winners today, it’s going to be something as engineers we can always say, yes we made that,” said Jon Doyle.