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Students and profs compete for Sudbury Food Bank

The New Sudbury Centre was invaded over the weekend by engineering and architecture students building giant structures out of canned foods, that ranged from Lego characters to an extra-extra large Tim Hortons Roll Up the Rim cup.
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Cambrian College civil engineering instructor Jeff Walker stood next to his team's work in progress with a plan for the final design at the 2014 Canstruction competition at the New Sudbury Centre. All non-perishable food items used in the competition will be donated to the Sudbury Food Bank. Photo by Jonathan Migneault.
The New Sudbury Centre was invaded over the weekend by engineering and architecture students building giant structures out of canned foods, that ranged from Lego characters to an extra-extra large Tim Hortons Roll Up the Rim cup.

After a six-year hiatus, the Sudbury Food Bank hosted the third edition of its Canstruction event.

The students, and faculty, built the structures with food items that will be donated to the Sudbury Food Bank after the event ends next weekend.

More than $10,000 worth of canned foods have gone into this year's competition.

“I think it's a lot of fun,” said John Haaland, a second year civil engineering student at Cambrian College. “It's great chance to hang out with my classmates and do something outside of school.”

Haaland and his team built giant Lego characters as an ode to the impact the toys had on their choice of studies, and to cash in on the popularity of the new “Lego Movie.”

The three life-size Lego characters represent three of Cambrian's civil engineering instructors performing tasks such as surveying, or digging to study soil mechanics.

One of the instructors with a Lego likeness, Jeff Walker, led a team of Cambrian faculty and staff members.

The faculty and staff team was working on an arched wall that would display the Cambrian logo and a Facebook “like” button with the can labels.

Walker said a lot of engineering went into the design of the arched wall. “It would actually be very unstable if it was just a straight wall,” he said.

He also made sure to choose a variety of canned goods for the design so the Sudbury Food Bank would receive enough food to create balanced meals.

“I really pushed my students to become part of this,” Walker said.

Amy Chau, a first year civil engineering student at Cambrian, said the competition was a chance to apply the skills she had learned in class.

Chau and her team worked on a giant Tim Hortons cup roughly 21 times the size of a large coffee from the restaurant chain.
“We wanted to do something the community could look at and just relate to,” Chau said about their choice to go with the popular brand.

The Laurentian University School of Architecture decided to go a more local direction, with a giant smokestack and the letters “Arch” to represent the downtown school.

First year architecture student Theodore Wong said he was impressed by the level of skill and creativity on display at the event.

“I think it's a cool way for different kinds of students to come out and show their designs,” he said.

The four teams will compete for a variety of awards and bragging rights.

One team will be given the people's choice award on Saturday, March 15.

For the next week, members of the public will be able to vote for their favourite structure by visiting the Sudbury Food Bank website or scanning a QR code in person, at the New Sudbury Centre.

The structures will be on display until Saturday, March 15.

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Jonathan Migneault

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