Design Teams

Qlean is an interdisciplinary design club where students tackle climate change through collaborative, hands-on projects in clean technology. Our competitive team designs and builds a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) prototype to compete in the OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge. Our non-competitive team designs and builds a renewable energy prototype to give students hands-on engineering experience in sustainable technologies. Through these projects, our mission is to provide students with experiential learning opportunities and technical skills that are transferable to the clean technology industry. Qlean also creates pathways for students to enter the industry through networking events, guest speaker series, and professional development opportunities.

Queen’s Bridge Building Team (QBBT) is a design team at Queen’s which focuses on the design and construction of model bridges. These bridges measure around 1.5 m long, and are made of only popsicle sticks, white glue and dental floss. Every year, QBBT sends 5-6 bridges to the Troitsky Bridge Building Competition in Montreal, where universities from across North America compete to have the strongest and most efficient bridge. All teams submit their bridge into a hydraulic press that tests the strength of the bridge. Past bridges have sustained over 3500 kg (approximately the mass of two cars).

Queen's Hyperloop Design Team (QHDT) is a team comprised of over 100 like-minded students who share a vision for changing the future of transportation. We Leverage the amazingly talented students within the Queen's community to work in a cross-functional team, striving towards a shared goal of making the Hyperloop a reality. We are multidisciplinary and collaborative, spanning five faculties and all engineering disciplines. A well-structured and carefully planned management system enables our members to choose from 16 sub-teams and contribute to 7 projects within the team’s portfolio.

Relectric is developing a streamlined approach to EV conversions to enable consumers to have greater access to more affordable and sustainable vehicles, while providing undergraduate students with hands on experiences working with EV technology.

The Queen’s Aero Design Team competes in the International SAE Aero Design Competition, held annually each spring in the United States. The team builds one or two small scale remote control aircrafts, which aim to accomplish several goals, including highest payload fraction (smallest plane, biggest load), accuracy in dropping a payload onto a target, and largest payload carried. New aircrafts are designed and built each year using a variety of design software and techniques, and then constructed in shop. All disciplines and faculties are welcome to join the team, and of course, no experience is required. Come check us out in the ILC in BMH 115A!

Queen’s Biomedical Innovation Team (QBiT) is an undergraduate student-run, interdisciplinary design team focusing on biomedical device design and innovation. The team typically consists of ninety members in mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering, kinesiology, biology, biotechnology, and more. The team emphasizes collaboration between disciplines to create a comprehensive and fully-realized final product. The QBiT team strongly believes in education through application, and thus the team’s projects focus primarily on problem identification, prototyping design, and testing phases of product development. The team aims to compete in numerous international competitions per year, depending on the nature of the projects undertaken. QBiT also focuses its diverse knowledge base on providing learning opportunities for both the students on the team and other interested members of the community. The team organizes case competitions, speaker series, and collaborations with other design teams to expand the team’s potential and cultivate the principles of biomedical innovation at Queen’s and in the greater society of academia.

Tobogganing down a snow-covered hill never goes out of style. The Queen’s Concrete Toboggan Team is a multidisciplinary engineering design team that competes annually in the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan Race (GNCTR) against 20+ universities. The team designs and constructs a toboggan with a concrete running surface, complete with steering and braking systems. Teams are evaluated on their concrete mix and toboggan design, speed, stopping distance, team spirit, technical presentation, and technical report writing. From design and construction to testing and racing, the team brings together engineering and creativity to race in the largest and longest running engineering competitions in Canada.

The Queen’s Rocket Engineering Team (QRET) is a team of students from Queen’s University that share a passion for design and construction of high speed aircraft for the space and aerospace industries. The team builds a rocket each year to compete at the Spaceport America Cup. The objective of the competition is to deliver an 8.8 lb payload to an altitude of 10,000 feet, then track, and recover the rocket and payload in reflyable condition.

The Queen’s VEX U Robotics Team (QVEX) is a diverse team of students competing in the VEX U Robotics Competition. Our current roster includes over 20 students from 4 different faculties, a combined total of over 50 person-years of competitive robotics experience and 15 World Championship appearances. While the objective changes year to year, QVEX focuses on creating a pair of high-quality robots that are capable of precise object manipulation, visual object detection, unaided autonomous motion and navigation, driver-assisted remote operation, and much more. QVEX strives to continually push the boundaries of the VEX U Robotics Competition by developing cutting-edge software and by utilizing advanced manufacturing techniques of both electronic and mechanical components.