Montreal CEGEP students win industrial design competition

Four students from Montreal’s Dawson College, studying industrial design, won a design competition for Quebec college students.

The competition, known as “Odyssée de l’objet en 48 h,” challenges participants from CEGEPs across Quebec to showcase their creativity by creating a simple yet innovative object within a 48-hour timeframe. This year’s theme centered around designing an object that supports autonomous mobility.

“I think it’s a great step forward to inspire younger girls and women to participate in these things, but also in these careers,” said Veronica Silva, one of the members of the winning team.

The team comprised of Annabelle Mailhot, Veronica Silva, Ziyu Kang, and Jennyfer Raymond from Dawson College. The group created a product called “Simple Ouverture,” a tool that facilitates the daily life of a person with muscle weakness or joint rigidity. The tool encompasses several models of handles to open a door without having to grip a handle firmly.

“I thought of when I broke my hand, and I lost strength in my hand. So I was like, that would have been something useful that would help me do something with it, and then we did more research, and we came up with the idea of having an object that’s going to help you open a door without having to grip it,” said Silva.

“They’re a younger generation and they bring in ideas that are way different than from my generation or my colleague’s generation, so it makes them produce these really interesting ideas,” says Kim Webb, from the Faculty of Industrial Design at Dawson College.

This marked the second edition of the competition, drawing participation from 32 teams. Prizes were awarded to a total of nine teams, with the top prize being $1000.

However, for some members of the team, it’s what they learned from the competition that was truly priceless.

“I was maybe the second Black person in the competition. So, I felt nice to show that I’m good at what I do and I could maybe represent more Black people in the industry,” said Jennyfer Raymond, one of the team members.

“I would say the fact that STEM is a male-dominated industry or career, I wanted to expose myself to environments where I could learn more and put myself out of my comfort zone,” added Silva.