Five University of Guelph engineering students and 350 pounds of concrete and metal will slide down a Montreal ski hill as part of the 2025 Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR).
Concrete and toboggans aren't words that are normally in the same sentence, but for the past 50 years, the GNCTR has pitted hundreds of engineering students from universities across the country against one another to see who can create the fastest and safest design.
Snow was far from most people's minds when U of G's GNCTR team started their preparations last summer. Now, with months of design work under their belt, the team is set to put their toboggan to the test.
The Guelph GNCTR team at competition in 2023
"At that performance, you get one shot," says Dr. Ryan Clemmer, a U of G mechanical engineering professor who serves as the team's faculty advisor. "It's over in just a matter of seconds."
The Guelph GNCTR team will take part in a series of competitions over a weekend, including a technical exhibition, a drag race that tests brakes and speed, a slalom course to test steering and a one-on-one race to determine the fastest toboggan of the bunch.
The toboggan is also built with a theme in mind. This year it's NFL football, or "foot-bog," to stay on theme.
Interdisciplinary approach to student toboggan design
A total of 35 students make up this year's team, representing all disciplines from the School of Engineering, along with some from other colleges.
"The coolest part of our club is we're open to anyone," says team co-captain Adele Pinsonneault, a fourth-year biomedical engineering student. "We get to meet and work with so many people from different disciplines and incorporate all of our ideas together on one project."
Both Pinsonneault and fellow co-captain Emma Sanderson, who's in her fourth year of environmental engineering co-op, have been on the team for several years, working their way up into leadership positions. They credit their time in the club with setting them up for success both in and out of the classroom.
"Even though it's an engineering club, the soft skills and transferrable skills that you develop, like project management, communication and conflict resolution, have been really helpful to me," Sanderson says, who adds she was able to use examples from the toboggan team in her job search.
Putting engineering classroom skills to the test
Clemmer has acted as faculty advisor since the first Guelph GNCTR team formed more than a decade ago. He says joining the team gives students the chance to tackle larger projects and test out skills they wouldn't necessarily learn in their coursework.
"Student competitions in general are a great opportunity to put into practice all the things we've learned," he says. "They're applying theory, time management while meeting project deadlines and then seeing the results in real time as they put together the design."
Pinsonneault enjoys the hands-on learning that comes with building a concrete toboggan from scratch.
"It allows you to further what you've learned in class in a different way and really visualize the concepts we're learning," she explains.
Sanderson adds the club allowed her to learn skills outside of her major, like mixing concrete and welding.
"I'm really proud of the work we do," Sanderson says. "It's really exciting to go to competition and know that your hands welded that piece or made that part."
Enhancing U of G sense of community
The club enhances the sense of community that attracted Pinsonneault and Sanderson to U of G for their undergrad.
"I felt like I could really find a place here in U of G's engineering program," Pinsonneault says. "You don't have to be in competition with everyone, we all have a place."
The team has refined their toboggan into what they hope will be an award-winner as they head into four days of competition, Jan. 22 -26 in Montreal.
"It would be awesome to be recognized for the work we've put in to improve our toboggan and our team," Sanderson says.
