Students with Humber’s Bachelor of Industrial Design program had a successful showing at an annual design competition where they won several awards.

Each year, the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario (ACIDO) hosts the Rocket – a competition for Ontario’s graduating industrial designers. Founded nearly two decades ago, the competition is an opportunity for the students to showcase their thesis projects while competing for recognition and prizes sponsored by the industry.

The event is also a chance to further enhance the students’ connections to the industry by displaying their projects to a wider audience.

Graduates nominated at the top of their class from Humber, Carlton University, OCAD University and Sheridan College pitch their design projects to a jury of industry professionals.

Humber sent nine students to the competition. This year’s Humber participants were Emmett Bartley, Carlie Besser, Lilia Martínez Nenclares, Ethan Medeiros, Daniel Rowland, Jasmine Joaquin, Eve Mills, Roland Moeschter and Daniela Todorovic.

Martínez Nenclares won the ACIDO Rocket Second Place Award while Todorovic received the Consumer Product Award. Besser took home the ONSHAPE 3D CAD Award while Mills received the Custom Prototypes 2024 Prototype Prodigy Award.  

“This year’s achievements are all due to the hard work and diligence of our students, navigating through the complexity of industrial design and its process,” said Professor Catherine Chong. “Specifically, I’d like to celebrate the importance of female designer roles because gender disparity is a real issue in the industrial design industry. Congratulations to Lilia, Carlie, Daniela and Eve, and to all participants. You should be proud of your amazing accomplishments in bringing diverse perspectives to your design solutions.”

Chong said the Senior Level Thesis Project is the culmination of the Bachelor of Industrial Design student’s career at Humber and is the result of continuous development over the course of the academic year, leading to the capstone project. The thesis projects are led by Chong and supervised along with Professor Fredric Matovu. Technical support was provided by Michael Vander Velde with research and analysis support provided by Professor Patrick Burke.

ACIDO is an organization of accredited industrial designers formed to develop and promote the profession. The winners were announced at the Rocket Awards Ceremony held at the Sam Sorbara Auditorium in Brennan Hall at St. Michael's College of the University of Toronto.

The winning designs as well as shortlisted projects can be viewed by visiting the ACIDO website.