Projects have a broad scope and incorporate elements of sustainability and social justice.  Teams of 4-5 engineering students serve as consultants for business or organizations in the Design Clinic program. A project or partner is a business or agency that provides the student team with a real-world technological challenge from their operation.

Student design teams worked on four projects in collaboration with Parks Canada and three projects with the City of Charlottetown

Parks Canada

Established in 1911, the Parks Canada Agency is a federal body that manages, on behalf of all Canadians, national historic sites and national marine conservation areas throughout Canada.  The agency’s mandate is to protect and present examples of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage.  Although protection of natural and cultural resources is the main focus of work, Parks Canada provides opportunities for Canadians and visitors to connect with these resources through engaging experiences.  In 2016, over 24 million people visited sites and places administered by Parks Canada.  Locally, the agency manages Prince Edward Island National Park, Port-La-Joye-Fort Amherst National Historic Site (NHS), Ardgowan NHS, Green Gables Heritage Place, and Province House NHS, along with several monuments and commemorative plaques found throughout the province.

Glossy Buckthorn Puller

The glossy buckthorn plant is a large invasive shrub that can grow to 6 meters tall; It can live in wetlands, woodland edges, old fields, ditches, and grassy areas. Glossy buckthorn has been managed in PEI National Park since 2009. When managing glossy buckthorn, park staff prioritize pulling mature, seed-producing trees to mitigate the establishment of new plants. The student project team will design a solution for removing medium to large glossy buckthorn, including roots, that prevents any physical and/or back strain on park employees. 

Salt Bag Closure

Parks Canada purchases large quantities of road salt that is received in bulk bags with bottom tie-off cones (see Figure 1). The ties-offs are used to empty the salt into smaller hoppers for dispersal. The challenge facing the staff is that the hoppers are not large enough to accept a full bag of salt so the bulk bags need to be partially emptied and then tied until required. The student project team will design a better solution for releasing partial bags of salt.

T-Bar Puller

T-bars are installed on National Park beaches during the summer season to alert park users to restricted access zones. The T-bars can become substantially buried during the season due to shifting sand and are difficult to remove. The student project team will design a T-bar puller that works on the sand, reduces physical/back strain for the workers, and reduces the time required to remove the T-bars vs. digging them out with shovels.

EV Charge Trailer

Design functional requirements of an EV charging trailer for greening of the Parks Canada-PEI ground maintenance fleet. The charging trailer is to be towed by an F-150 extended range Ford Lightning truck and will need to transport/have the capacity to charge two zero-turn EV mowers as well as assorted electric landscaping hand tools (e.g., weed trimmers, chainsaws). Considerations and inclusions in the design concept could include: securing equipment for transport, charging requirements/capacity (i.e., calculating how much power is needed), safety considerations, possible incorporation of solar panels).

City of Charlottetown

The City of Charlottetown is a flourishing community of approximately 40,500 people located on the south shore of Prince Edward Island.  Charlottetown is the capital city of Prince Edward Island, and is called the "Birthplace of Confederation" after the historic 1864 Charlottetown Conference that led to Confederation.

Tree Bark Protector

The maintenance of the grass on City properties requires employees to regularly use mowers and string trimmers. These devices can damage the bark on newly planted street and park trees and cause early decline/death of trees. The student project team will design and build a bark protection solution for newly planted trees that is accessible, compostable/biodegradable, low-cost, and aesthetically pleasing.

Young Tree Root Ball Protection

The City takes delivery of around 150 large 10’ trees each spring. These trees are stored at the Charlottetown Pollution Control Plant for 3-4 weeks before distribution. During storage, the root balls must be watered regularly to prevent them from becoming too dry. The student project team will design a tree root cover that reduces watering or can be watered easily as required; is reusable; compostable/biodegradable; and secure (not susceptible to wind/rain removing the cover).

Crow Deterrent

The City receives a lot of calls from residents who are concerned about crows nesting in nearby trees and their feces landing on cars, decks, etc. The City has a Living With Crows page on their website, which provides some DIY crow deterrent strategies for residents to deploy. The student project team will design and build a new crow deterrent device that City residents can deploy on their property. The device cannot cause any harm to animals (i.e. can’t spray with water, use toxins, etc.).