FAQ

Yes! We’d love volunteers and judges. If you would like to sign up as a volunteer or are a graduate/experienced student confident in judging, please sign up through this form.

At the moment, only McMaster Faculty of Engineering students. This includes any students from Engineering, IBio, BTech, and Computer Science. This is because as per OEC and CEC guidelines, only engineering students are allowed to advance onto those provincial and federal levels (because OEC will be a paid trip by the MES). Students from universities other than McMaster will not be able to take part in MEC and will need to partake in their own chapters. This is because MEC will only pay for our 1st place teams to go to OEC and if we allowed engineering students from other universities, our money would be going outside of McMaster.

Please redirect any questions or inquiries you may have to the MEC Discord, particularly the #questions channel.

Most categories require teams of 2-4 students. Any category allows you to go solo but we would not recommend that due to the time constraints imposed on you. Please check the website and our Instagram (@macengcomp) for up-to-date information.

Don’t worry! If you can’t find a team, sign up individually and we’ll pair you with others through our matchmaking process. You’ll get the chance to meet new people and collaborate on exciting challenges

No, participants can only compete in one category since all categories’ build/design sessions occur simultaneously on November 10th. You can always try a different category at next year’s MEC, or this year’s OEC/CEC ( if you win ;) ).

Junior Design is only for first and second-year students, while Senior Design is aimed at upper-year students who have more experience with design challenges.

Bring your laptop, charger, student ID, and most importantly --- your enthusiasm! For Jr/Sr design categories, materials will be provided in a designated supply room. Please do NOT bring your extra supplies (that’s cheating). For all categories, we’ll also have paper and writing supplies available.

Projects or presentations are evaluated based on criteria like creativity, functionality, technical accuracy, and how well they solve the given problem. Each category has a specific rubric, which you will have access to closer to the competition.

Yes, most categories allow the use of external resources like the internet, but specific guidelines must be followed. Remember to be responsible and focus on having fun being an engineer (this is your chance!), not copying what you see online.

If something comes up and you can’t participate after registering, please inform the organizers as soon as possible. We understand life -- and school -- happens!

The prompts for most categories are very open ended, but there are problem statements you can choose from to guide you. Vague prompts related to the competition theme will be shared on our Instagram (@macengcomp) to tease the categories and get ya excited, but the detailed problem statements will be revealed on the day of the event.

At the moment, only Innovative Design beforehand due to its Capstone nature, and Communications can be started on November 10th and should be finalized before presentation day, November 17th.

Haha, we promise we won’t let you starve. We will provide free food during the event --- lunch and snacks on day 1, and a luncheon on day 2.

Please check this spreadsheet for the current list of courses that are offering course bonuses for MEC 2024 and what structure of bonus they will provide you.

Sorry, but nope! You are only allowed to choose one course that you would like a bonus in. This is so that professors can ensure students don’t receive multiple bonuses.