UNBC students podium at national engineering contest

Four UNBC students placed second in a national capstone project competition.

Christopher Ross, Jacob Burke, and Henry Flynn all received their Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering degrees this spring, Avery Nystedt received a BASc degree in Environmental Engineering.

Together, with Dr. Oliver Iorhemen, they designed upgrades for a wastewater treatment system for their capstone project which just placed second at the 2024 Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) annual conference.

Professor Mauricio Dziedzic, the Chair of UNBC’s School of Engineering, said “Engineering programs across Canada are required to have a significant design experience as a part of the curriculum. Most, if not all schools opt to do that through a capstone design project.”

The wastewater treatment system they worked on was the Stellat’en First Nation’s, Dziedzic explained “it takes into account the growing needs of the community and to attract community members who may not be living there for a perceived lack of infrastructure.”

According to Dziedzic, the students designed the system to meet the demands of the community for 40 years.

Proud of the second place finish, he emphasized every engineering school in Canada gets an invite to participate in the competition, this year 19 accepted.

“All the top engineering schools in Canada were in attendance, or if they did not they elected to do so but they had been invited,” he said.

“It is a recognition of our efforts. Recently the school of engineering at UNBC has grown considerably,” Dziedzic continued. “In 2019 UNBC started its own programs in civil and environmental engineering. Our first cohort graduated last year.”

This was the first year UNBC participated in the event, Dziedzic described placing in their first attempt as “overwhelming.”

You can read more about the project here.