UBC Okanagan’s Great Northern Concrete Toboggan team on the course with their winning sled.
A team of engineering students from UBC Okanagan notched an impressive victory at the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) in February.
This year marked the 50th Annual Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race. Nearly 400 students from from 16 schools across the country converged at White Hills Resort in Clarenville, Newfoundland. Among them were 28 undergraduate students from UBCO, who together took top spot overall.
For Katie Van Rooyen, a 5th year Mechanical Engineering student and captain of the victorious UBCO GNCTR team, the victory is a culmination of years of learning, hard work and determination, from the classroom to the toboggan course.
“I joined the club in first year and stayed involved all the way through my studies,” explains Van Rooyen, who will graduate with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering in June. “Finishing with a win was an incredible experience for me, and for this team who have worked so hard to realize this goal.”
The rules are simple, but the science, technical skill and creativity behind it, are anything but.
Each competing team must design and build a toboggan with concrete sliding surfaces, a safety roll cage and a mechanical steering and braking system. Each toboggan must weigh less than 160 kilograms (under 350 pounds) and carry five competitors.
“This year’s sled incorporated years of learning,” explains Van Rooyen. “We started a year ago with a clean slate—a blank screen—but the design, concrete mix, brakes and other features were all heavily informed by what we’ve learned from previous years.”
The teams began planning in late winter, designed over the summer and built their sleds in the fall so that they could be ready for shipping across Canada by the end of the calendar year.
Once in Newfoundland, the UBCO team overcame icy conditions that proved advantageous for their excellent—and painstakingly designed—superstructure system and skis, notes Van Rooyen. She recounts how the group remained on the edge of their seats at the results were announced as, in the end, the UBCO team was bestowed Best Performing Toboggan and 1st Place Overall.
UBC Okanagan engineering students pose with the trophy after winning the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Competition.
“The team was elated as we heard the final results,” says Van Rooyen. “We were all on our feet celebrating—it was truly one of the happiest and proudest moments of my life. It felt like the culmination of years of hard work.”
The next time Van Rooyen crosses a stage will be at UBC Okanagan’s convocation ceremony in June. She looks back with appreciation for how her design team experience and her applied learning journey within the School of Engineering have prepared her for a career as a Mechanical Engineer.
“Being able to have this real-world experience in bringing a design to life, putting to use what I’ve learned in the classroom, has opened so many doors. It enriched my co-op experience, it helped me build confidence and get a job offer before graduation. For myself and my teammates, the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan experience has kept up our motivation and inspired us to push ourselves.”
The GNCTR is the longest running, national university design competition.
Dr. Ahmad Rteil, Assistant Professor with the School of Engineering served as faculty advisor to the team.
UBC Okanagan’s Concrete Toboggan team included:
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Full competition results and details can be found at www.gnctr2024.ca/.