The Atlantic Engineering Competition

The Atlantic Engineering Competition (AEC) is an annual student-run initiative that began in 1983 and has since grown to become one of the largest and highly anticipated engineering competitions in Canada. The 3-day event, with participants from 9 universities across Atlantic Canada, provides a setting for students to develop meaningful relationships with their peers while demonstrating their engineering skills in a competitive environment.

175+ Engineering Students. 8 Competitions.

Students in teams of 1-4 compete in a series of 8 competitions designed to test their innovative, problem-solving, and leadership skills – key qualities of a successful and well-rounded engineer. Winners of the AEC will represent the Atlantic Region at the prestigious Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC), where they will pit their skills against winners from similar regional competitions across Canada.

Competition Categories

Junior Design

Competitors will be presented with a real-world industry problem and must generate a practical, creative and feasible solution. With limited time and resources, teams must design, create and test a physical prototype before delivering a brief presentation to a panel of judges. All competitors must be enrolled in the first two years of their engineering degree. As competitors will be at the early stages of their studies, the competition will be based off of a general level of engineering topics.

Innovative Design

Competitors will develop a sophisticated and commercially viable product or service that fulfills a need or improves on an existing design. During the competition, competitors will showcase their final recommendation in the form of a professional presentation to panel to judges.

Re-engineering

Competitors will be challenged to redesign an existing product or process either by improving an existing design or by adapting it for a completely new purpose. Competitors will be judged based on the functionality, practicality, feasibility and marketability of their final.

Engineering Consulting

The purpose of the Consulting Engineering competition is to challenge competitors to design a detailed solution to a large-scale engineering problem. The proposal must be made in a way that promotes the solution to the client (in the form of judges). Competitors must demonstrate resourcefulness while acting in good faith with the spirit of the competition.

Senior Design

Similar to Junior Design, competitors will be presented with a real-world industry problem and must generate a practical, creative and feasible solution. With limited time and resources, teams must design, create and test a physical prototype before delivering a brief presentation to a panel of judges. All competitors must be enrolled in the last two years of their engineering degree. As the competitors will be in the late stages of their studies, the design may require a collaborative effort from multiple engineering disciplines.

Programming

Competitors are tasked with producing industry-quality software to solve a given problem. The software will be presented to a panel of judges for evaluation.

Parliamentary Debate

Often in the industry, engineers are required to argue for or against a proposal with limited preparation time. Using the format of parliamentary debate, competitors will be assigned to either defend or refute a previously undisclosed resolution. The subiect of the debate will relate to the fields of engineering, and science and their impact on society.

Engineering Communications

Competitors will generate a sophisticated presentation in which they identify an applicable process or issue and generate a clear argument that analyzes the social, environmental, technical, and economic impacts associated with their argument. A professional presentation will be conducted to a panel of judges with varying technical backgrounds.

AEC Co-Chairs

Joya Boutros

Hello everyone! My name is Joya Boutros, and I am honored to serve as one of your Co-Chairs for AEC 2026. I am in my final year of Electrical Engineering at Dalhousie University, and I am happy to help make this year’s AEC an incredible experience for all participants.

Beyond my role as Co-Chair, I am actively involved across the faculty and student community. I serve as the Sponsors Relations Commissioner for ACES, VP External for the IEEE Dalhousie Student Branch, and a representative for both the Electrical Engineering Society and Women in Engineering. I also mentor first-year students and support initiatives that encourage women in engineering.

Lucas Melanson

Lucas is a third-year electrical engineering student with an interest in automation and control systems, and is involved with several clubs at Dalhousie University. He joined AEC to help build Dalhousie's legacy as a strong conference school. In his spare time, he enjoys sports and playing the drums.

AEC Chair responsibilities include:

Leading a team to organize the Atlantic Engineering Competition
Managing the quality of the events, accomodations, etc. to ensure a successful event
Overlooking all aspects of scheduling, budgeting to track the progress of planning keeping the event on budget