Celebrating Ingenuity: A look at uOttawa Engineering’s largest student event

Faculty of Engineering
Centre for Entrepreneurship and Engineering Design
Student life
Design
A Design Day participant displays his racecar
Creativity and innovation converge at Design Day, the Faculty of Engineering’s largest undergraduate and graduate student event, where students showcase projects that provide solutions to real clients.

Innovation and creativity are driving forces for students at the Faculty of Engineering. From projects to research, their curiosity, perseverance and out-of-the-box thinking is undeniable. Design Day is an arena to put these skills on display.  

One of the Faculty’s most anticipated events, this competition occurs twice a year, once during the fall term and again during the winter term. Students work with external partners to find solutions to real-world problems. As they transform their ideas into tangible solutions, their design projects take on many forms, from physical prototypes to design plans to apps or websites. The event brings together industry professionals, families, friends, faculty members and students.

Over the years, there have been many impressive projects. Here are some favorites from previous Design Day competitions that have had a lasting impact on our community. 

Design Day projects

Robotic frisbee thrower
Robotic frisbee throwers for people with mobility impairments.
Early-stage prototype of a brewery instrumentation product
A brewery instrumentation product.
A bee house.
A pollinator "hotel” for bees with integrated temperature and humidity monitoring
A greenhouse.
A modular greenhouse designed for the Inuuqatigiit Centre for Children, Youth and Families to teach sustainable gardening to the community
An early-stage prototype of an adapted t-shirt folder.
An adapted t-shirt folder for people with mobility issues
A prototype for a machine that cooks food automatically.
An automated cooking machine
An early stage model environmental monitoring building
A model environmental monitoring building
Prototype of hydroponic gardening system.
Hydroponic grow towers
An early-stage protoype of a robotic grabber arm
Robotic grabber arms
An early-stage protoype of another robotic grabber arm
Close-up of a robotic grabber arm prototype.
An early-stage prototype of a lightweight hook
Lightweight hook for search-and-rescue SKED sleds
Image of a device in prototype stage attached to a wheelchair. The device assists wheelchair users in moving their backpack from behind the chair to a reachable location on the side.
A wheelchair backpack transfer device.
Prototype Land Rover vehicle
A rover designed to explore extraterrestrial environments made by the uORover team.

Discover Design Day at the Faculty of Engineering

Design Day is more than a competition; it’s also a celebration of the incredible achievements of our students. Each term, event categories are established for which prizes are awarded. Such categories include optimizing design for: a weapons ban, an accelerated erosion test system, an adjustable door hardware cutout jig, an artificial pollination system, an hoteling kit for offices, accessibility and lifecycle analysis. For many students, this event is the culmination of months of dedication and work, and demonstrates their passion for their chosen field.  

Design Day embodies the values of the Faculty of Engineering: it illustrates impact, celebrates innovation, and inspires future engineers to think beyond the conventional to make the future.

This year's Design Day is happening on April 4.