UBCO 'crushin' it

Photo: Jennifer Zielinski. Student Dejo Oyelese gears up to crush some

cans.

Some do it one at a time, some can take three.

Can crushers designed and built by UBC Okanagan first year engineering students lined the atrium of the EME building on Campus Thursday.

Each project crumpled a can in different ways, but all used the same five mechanisms; sorting, loading, counting, energy transformation and crushing.

The students worked in groups of six for approximately three months before they unveiled what they believed to be the ultimate can crusher.

The experiment was assigned as part of the universities project based learning program through the course Engineering fundamentals.

Project coordinator Ray Taheri says the program deals with a more hands on approach to give students a greater chance of success.

"It builds skills such as problem solving, failure analysis and coming up with the best solution by giving certain criteria."

Student Dejo Oyelese says his groups project is the most effective because it is safe and can sort well.

"You have to crush the cans without having too many exposed parts," he explains. "You want to be able to tell the difference between a large can, a small can and a regular sized Pepsi can."

Jordan McLean says his crusher is the fastest.

"We crush three cans at once in a cylinder motion and it beats a piston because it can only crush one and it's slower."

Of the 33 projects, the top three will be put on display while the rest will be dismantled and parts will be recycled for next year's class.