Two McMaster teams move on to National Engineering Competition

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/cpr-glove.jpg” caption=”Fourth-year electrical and biomedical engineering students Corey Centen and Nilesh Patel won the Innovative Design category with their CPR Glove invention. Photo by Susan Bubak.”]Two teams from the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University took first place at the Ontario Engineering Competition this past weekend to qualify for the Canadian Engineering Competition in Saskatoon next month.

Fourth-year electrical and biomedical engineering students Corey Centen and Nilesh Patel won the Innovative Design category against eight other teams with their CPR Glove invention.

The glove is designed to guide people in applying cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and improve survival rates for those in cardiac arrest.

Studies show that people trained in CPR, including nurses and physicians, forget how to properly apply CPR in as little as six months. The team received $4,000 for winning the category.

The four-member Consulting Engineering team from McMaster also placed first in their category at the provincial competition and took home a prize of $2,800.

The team had the best presentation for optimizing firefighters' health and performance when battling large blazes, such as the 1991 oil well fires in Kuwait. Eight teams were entered in the category.

Members of the multi-disciplinary Consulting Engineering team include fourth-year engineering students Lauren Davies (chemical and bioengineering), Marka Jansen (chemical and bioengineering), Paul Okrutny (materials science and engineering), and Patrick Wilson (engineering physics).

Adrienne Reader, a fourth-year mechanical and management student, took third place in the Engineering Communications category. Competitors vied against each other to present technical viewpoints on the subject of biodiesel in a manner that would be understood by the general public.

The Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC) is an annual event that challenges university engineering students from across the province to a series of competitions.

The 28th annual event was held at Carleton University in Ottawa from Feb. 9 to Feb. 11. More than 230 competitors from 15 universities participated. The six competition categories include Senior Team Design, Junior Team Design, Innovative Design, Consulting Engineering, Engineering Communications, and Parliamentary Debate. McMaster will host the next event in February 2008.

The top two teams in each category from the provincial level move on to compete at the national Canadian Engineering Competition, which is being held in Saskatoon from March 8 to March 11.