Pre-Learning Course
Six interactive modules drawn from UBC's first-year engineering program, running here exactly as they would on Canvas. Work through them before May 16 and you'll walk into the competition with a shared vocabulary, a structured way to approach the problem, and an edge on every team that didn't prepare.
We'll email your certificate of completion after the competition. You don't need to claim it, ask for it, or log into Canvas. Work through the modules below, show up on May 16, and the certificate arrives in your inbox.
Each module builds on the last. Around 5 to 10 minutes each, video-based with full narration, covering the exact vocabulary and frameworks your team will use on competition day.
Why engineers follow a process instead of jumping to solutions - and why the teams that skip this step always pay for it later.
You can't solve the right problem if you don't know who it's a problem for. Stakeholders, needs, and why what people say isn't always what they mean.
The first idea is almost never the best idea. How to generate more options, avoid fixation, and use C-sketch to hear every voice on your team.
You have 12 ideas and not enough time. How to screen, rank, and score your way to the one solution worth developing.
Before building the real thing, engineers test cheap versions first. Why this matters, and why a sketch on a napkin counts as a prototype.
The answer to the pothole problem might not be better roads. Why the scale you're looking at changes everything about what solutions are even possible.
UBC will email your certificate of completion after the competition on May 16. Nothing to claim, nothing to chase, it will reach you.