Several teams from three institutions took part in our round one battle before three advanced to our Grand Final. Previously we had run a successful competition with Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK and a UK wide competition, but this time it was the turn of our US friends.
We took our competition overseas, to the North-East Coast (NEC) of America. Entrants had previously expressed interest in running or being part of a similar competition to the one we did with NTU in 2018. So, in the autumn of 2022 we decided to launch our latest competition in response to those interested in taking part.
The Battle of the NEC commenced with video submissions from: SUNY New Paltz, the University of Michigan-Flint and York College of Pennsylvania.
Teams had to submit a three to five-minute video that investigated an engineering theory or concept that utilised a piece of TecQuipment teaching equipment to practically test and verify that theory or concept. The video submissions were then marked against criteria focused on the research question and experimental design, experiment procedure, analysis and evaluation of results gathered through the experiment and the effectiveness of the presentation. All the students involved received certificates of participation for their hard work and the winners from each institution were awarded $150 in prize money for their successful video entry.
The top three teams from round one, one from each institution, then progressed into the Grand Finale where the videos were reassessed and, after a final debate with our judges, an overall winner was announced.
The winning entry analysed Heat Exchangers with the use of TecQuipment’s Water to Air Heat Exchangers (TD1007), with the research and experimentation that focused on “How does the overall efficiency improve when varying air flow rate of an automotive compact heat exchanger verse a 16-tube finned experimental heat exchanger?” Their video submission was presented professionally and clearly showed and explained their experiment and why this was important in the context of real-world applications. They also critically analysed their results and provided in-depth insight into what their results meant in comparison to those real applications.
For their winning video, Team 3 from the University of Michigan-Flint received certificates of participation, $1,000 in prize money and a custom-made TecQuipment trophy for their superb submission.
Why are competitions important?
Whilst showing our enthusiasm for students using and engaging with TecQuipment’s product was a main factor in this competition, and providing money to hopefully help students with their studies, the main purpose of the competition was to prepare and enhance students' learning by:
- Proving engineering knowledge - prove understanding of theory and practical engineering in a chosen topic through visual evidence.
- Developing soft skills – develop or enhance skills such as team working, communication, presentation, and problem-solving skills through project work.
- Learning new skills – learn skills outside of engineering like video production and editing that could be transferred to future projects.
- Building an industry portfolio – this project and the skills learnt is something that will help students stand out against other candidates when applying for future jobs.
What better way to cement your understanding of theory and practical work than performing a project that showcases everything you have learnt and being in with the chance to win prizes and recognition!
We hope everyone involved in this competition managed to use this project to learn something about themselves, develop new and transferrable skills and of course learn more about the engineering principles being taught in their class.
----------------------
We hope you enjoyed reading about our 2023 Student Competition. If this has inspired you to host your own competition and would like our sponsorship or if you would be interested in being part of our next student competition, please feel free to get in contact with us at marketing@tecquipment.com.
We welcome anyone to participate in our student competition; it’s not just for the UK or USA! So let see where our next competition will take us!
