Ever wondered how you can gain industry experience on your resume before getting a full-time job?
Try participating in an engineering competition.
Engineering competitions are a great starting block for young engineers to network and be recognised with industry professionals. Plus, it looks great on a resume!
These competitions might be closed at the time of this post but check out the winning projects for more information. Keep an eye on the opening dates for next year and mark them in your calendar.
1. YEA (Young Engineers Australia) Case Competition
This competition challenges teams of young engineers to create innovative solutions for a real-life problem.
The competition case brief is generally released early August.
2. Warman Design & Build Competition
This competition has been running for 35 years and is designed specifically for students in mechanical engineering. It’s been sponsored by Weir Materials and provides an opportunity to have hands on experience to practice engineering design skills.
The finals are held in October.
3. Formula SAE-A
As known as Formula Student, this is an engineering design competition where student teams design, manufacture, and race small open-wheeler racing cars. The competition is global and encourages students from engineering, as well as business to participate – testing engineering, marketing, management, finance and team work skills.
Most unis have their own team so find out where to join:
- UNSW Redback Racing
- Monash Motorsport
- RMIT Racing
- Team Swinburne
- Melbourne University Racing
- UTS Motorsports Electric
Registration for teams typically begin in April and finals are held in December.
4. Google’s Code Jam and Hash Code competition
Code Jam is Google’s longest coding competition and competitors work through a series of online problems. It’s so popular that it has a World Finals and a chance to win $15,000USD!
Hash Code is a team-based coding competition and competitors work together to solve a real-life Google engineering problem.
Registrations generally open in February.
5. Google’s Kick Start competition
Kick Start is an individual, online coding competition. There are three-hour rounds of challenges but these are held more regularly throughout the year and during different time zones, so all international participants can join in. Sometimes the participants of Kick Start are invited for job interviews at Google!
Registrations generally open in January.
6. EWB (Engineers Without Borders) Challenge
This challenge is a suite of real-world project based briefs designed for uni students to gain practical professional skills, build on design processes and use learned theory.
This challenge is a bit more complex to participate in, and requires your university to have registered – check out the list. If they’re on the list, reach out to your department head to find out how to get involved.
7. worldskills Australia Competition
This competition is focused on young people who want to showcase their skills and be challenged with the industry talent. It is almost like the Olympics of technical skills! It is quite a journey to get to the international platform as it runs on a two-year competition cycle.
If you’ve missed out on the regional events, don’t fret and check out the Manufacturing & Engineering Technology details for the next cycle.
8. Hackathons
There are plenty of hackathons that run throughout the year. There’s a range that can suit different engineering skill sets with plenty of cash prizes, job opportunities, mentoring and international trips.
Hackathon Australia has a compilation of all the events that run nationally. Check out the past events to get an idea of when they will begin for the next year.
9. Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition
This competition is not specifically Engineering focused, each university holds competitions at the faculty level before progressing finalists onto the regional Asia-Pacific level.
For example, check out Monash University’s engineering finalists.
10. Microsoft Imagine Cup
A competition that has been running for over 20 years, this competition aims to sharpen coding and collaboration skills. Imagine Cup starts at the end of the year and rolls into the new year, so keep an eye out when the submissions begin.
Submissions generally begin in December by joining the Discord community and completing the Epic Challenge. The World Championship for 2023 is in May.