UC Engineering

15/10/2026

It's all go tomorrow, Friday 16 October! 📸

Come along and see our Faculty of Engineering students put their skills, creativity and engineering know-how to the test.

Mechanical & Mechatronics Final Year Project Presentations
📍 Rātā | 9am - 5pm
See what our final-year students have been working on, and don’t miss the Rubik’s Cube demonstration from 12:20pm–12:30pm, as the team attempts to crack the world record! 🧊

Civil and Environmental Engineering Bridge Building Competition
📍 C Block lawn | 10am–12pm and 1pm–3pm
Watch teams put their bridge designs to the test in this fun engineering challenge.

School of Product Design Formula 111 Rebuild & Race
📍 Jack Mann Auditorium, Dovedale Campus | 10am–1pm
In this design challenge students are tasked with disassembling an appliance, turning it into a remote-control car, and racing it against each other.

Good luck to our students competing tomorrow! 🤩

05/10/2026

🔧8 hours. One real-world problem. What would you design?

UC's Engineering Challenge is an annual competition run by students from our Mechatronics Society (UC TronSoc). This year saw 114 high school students from 23 schools across New Zealand design an engineering solution to assist dementia patients with an aspect of their daily routine.

Students spent 8 hours researching, designing, and finally presenting their solution in an engineering report. The competition intended to provide high school students with experience tackling a real world engineering problem, and aimed to encourage students to use mechatronics engineering principles to develop their solutions.

Entrants used a combination of mechanical, electronics, and software design techniques to devise unique solutions to the challenge ranging from daily medication dispensers to a mixed media memory book - each showing a strong grasp of the needs of the people they were designed to help. The creativity, empathy, and technical skill on display throughout the day were impressive, and the organising team was proud of what the students achieved in such a short time.

👏 Thank you to all participants this year and congratulations to New Plymouth Boys’ High School on their winning design: “Automating Medication Timing and Dosage for Dementia Patients”.

(Image: TronSoc team during the marking)

29/09/2026

First-year BE (Hons) students - it's your last chance to chat to staff and students from the 8 engineering disciplines before you rank your favourites and apply for second year.

Drop into Rātā anytime between 11am and 1pm.

Student advisors and kaitoko will also be there to help.

Donuts are for first year Faculty of Engineering students only (that includes Prod, For Sci, Comp Sci etc...) !

29/09/2026

28/09/2026

23/09/2026

Ever wondered what the future of human exploration beyond Earth looks like?

Join us for this special public lecture on Deep Space Exploration: A Global Endeavour with NASA Senior Engineer and UC Erskine Fellow Tim Atkins.

🌌 Monday 28 September | 7pm–8pm
📍 C2 Lecture Theatre, Central Lecture Theatres, Ilam Campus, University of Canterbury

Tim will take us behind the scenes of NASA’s Artemis programme and its ambition to return astronauts to the Moon, including the first woman, and establish a sustainable human presence on the lunar surface.

He’ll explore the successes of the first two Artemis missions, what’s coming next, and the engineering and ground testing behind NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS).

🌏 Free and open to the public, registrations not required.

21/09/2026

This week, people from across the campus are lacing up for Run72 – a 72-hour, student-led fundraising event in support of Lads Without Labels, a by-students-for-students charity focused on men's mental health.

From 4pm Tuesday 22nd to 4pm Friday 25th, our FoE team will be out on the UC campus loop keeping the run going to raise funds and get people talking about mental health.

Here's how you can get involved:
💸 Donate – every dollar counts toward our team total and the wider Run72 goal
🏃 Show up – come for a lap, bring a mate, or just cheer from the sidelines
📣 Spread the word – share our team page with colleagues, students, and friends

👉 Support the Faculty of Engineering team here:

Run72 : Make a donation today to support Run72

13/09/2026

Engineering discipline info evenings for first-year BE (Hons) students kick off this week!
Head along for the free food, hear from senior students, take lab tours and meet some of your future classmates.

09/09/2026

The University of Canterbury Human Power Club invite you to the public reveal of Kākahi, this year’s human-powered vehicle.

Built and designed by UC students over the course of the year, Kākahi is a three-wheeled recumbent HPV combining engineering expertise from across the Faculty - including work from two final-year projects.

And the goal? A top speed of more than 100 km/h. ⚡

Come along for the first public look at the vehicle and hear directly from the students who designed and built its different components. It’s a chance to see what students can achieve when they take their learning beyond the classroom and put their engineering skills to the test.

📅 Friday 11 September
⏰ 4–5pm
📍 John Britten Building, Faculty of Engineering, 69 Creyke Road

The Human Power Club is entirely student-run, and we’d love for you to join us to celebrate what the team has created.

31/08/2026

🌏 How are landslides shaping New Zealand’s future?

Registrations are now open for the 2026 Hopkins Lecture!

Join Ross Roberts, Chief Engineer at Auckland Council, for an engaging look at how landslides shape Aotearoa New Zealand’s landscape — and what increasing rainfall under climate change could mean for future risk.

Drawing on recent events, including Cyclone Gabrielle, Ross will explore how landslides occur and how engineering, science and planning are helping us understand and manage an increasingly unstable landscape.

📅 Monday, 21 September 2026
🕕 6pm–7.30pm
📍 Ngaio Marsh Theatre, University of Canterbury, 90 Ilam Road, Ilam, Christchurch

Stay afterwards for nibbles and light refreshments until 8pm.

Registrations are open now (link in comments)!