On Saturday April 21st 2018 Four Ingenieros Foundation held its annual engineering competition. This year’s competition took place at Procore Technologies in Carpinteria, California. Last year, the focus of the competition was on computer science with a small portion of circuit fundamentals. This year the competition was heavily focused on project management via Procore Technologies Construction management software. Thanks to the generous support from Procore Technologies, Four Ingenieros Foundation was able to provide a unique experience and a real world simulation of project management to our student participants. Each year Four Ingenieros Foundation aims to expose students to different skills sets that will be fundamental in their ability to adapt and succeed in any industry environment.
The task for this competition was to project manage a rocket where students were given a budget, a list of materials, and requirements. They were instructed to manage their project using Procore software with a list of tools that are basic to project management. Some of the tools that students were able to learn and use were: how to make purchase orders, how to control and monitor budgets, how to request information using the RFI’s tool, how to reference different resources using the documents tool and how to use the inspection tool which helped students meet the project requirements.
The exposure to project management was fundamental for as it taught students how to work in teams and learn that each team member brings a unique set of skills. Some members took on a leadership role, while others were more hands on. In addition to the project management software tools, students were able to do some hands on work with the design and fabrication of their rocket. Towards the end of the competition students were given the opportunity to present their project management, design and fabrication approach in front of the audience. It was a common theme that working in teams is crucial to any environment with goals to accomplish a task (ie. rockets, automobiles, class projects). Some students were more into the project management aspect of the competition than others who enjoyed the manufacturing and fabrication process, all which are imperative to any project of any capacity.
When you land your first internship or industry job you will be put in a situation where you will need to learn and adapt to the companies tools and ways of managing projects. Students were put in this situation and had to work efficiently to quickly learn how to use all the resources that were made available to them.
It is important that Four Ingenieros Foundation be able to have the support and resources to continue helping students. These types of competitions give us the opportunity to have students dive in to new areas they would not see in a classroom setting. It is also an opportunity to offer a new perspective and a different dynamic from academia but more importantly give them a sneak peak into the world of industry.
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Photo Credit: Gloria Nuño
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Students were surveyed before and after competition and we asked them these questions... 1 is "Nothing at all" confidence and a 5 being "I am an expert" confidence.
Overall their confidence increased by 19.43%