For Evan Demczuk, being nominated for the Rocket competition was an honour, but winning an award has him floating on cloud nine.
Organized by the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario (ACIDO), ROCKET is an annual provincial competition held among four post-secondary institutions that teach design. Humber has participated in this competition for the last 12 years. This year, Bachelor of Industrial Design professors Catherine Chong and Dr. Dennis Kappen selected and submitted eight capstone design projects to the competition.
“ROCKET helps our designers gauge their design responsiveness, knowledge and presentation skills with the competing designers from other design schools,” said Dr. Kappen.
Demczuk describes being selected by his professors as a ‘confidence booster’.
“Participating in this contest provided me with the opportunity to reflect on my learning experience, build my portfolio, and help me find jobs post-graduation,” said Demczuk.
Designs in this year’s ROCKET competition had to be unique solutions and picked from the highest-ranked students of the graduating class. Humber’s industrial design entries focused on enhancing human lifestyle and included full-bodied human interaction design, human factors, ergonomics and sustainability.
Demczuk’s project won the Suave Studios Project Foresight Award, presented to the project that best exemplifies forward, solution-driven thinking.
Future-focused
Demczuk’s project, ‘CONSIGN’,’ is a compact, all-electric, transportation vehicle designed to streamline the curbside delivery process. It aims to benefit a wide array of users, so the design features a loading arm, an upright seat, and an advanced surround lighting system.
Demczuk describes delivery workers as the “backbone of our society as they move supplies critical to the function of the world.”
In his thesis, Demczuk stated his rationale for the focus of his project. “The goal was to create a focus on the driver as well as the parcels. This design takes many physical and mental stresses off of the user and aims to increase their safety, security, and mood while on the job,” he said.
Responding to a need
The CONSIGN project was timely because within weeks of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, parcel delivery services such as Canada Post reported record-high deliveries. 
Deliveries are approaching peak holiday season numbers, which can significantly impact the well-being of the drivers.
Demczuk’s design focuses human-centered solutions to improve the quality of user’s work lives.
“Evan's design project was innovative and showed a great deal of ingenuity for the impending challenges faced by humanity in the realm of parcel distribution. His problem definition addressed the human interaction elements and the logistical aspects faced in the process of metropolitan parcel delivery,” said Dr. Kappen.
Demczuk is the latest of several Humber Industrial Design students who have won ROCKET with their capstone design projects.
“Evan’s design is a testament to our human-centric design methodology which helps define the new generation of industrial designers from the Bachelor of Industrial Design program at Humber College,” says Dr. Kappen.
Now a graduate, Demczuk sees the potential impact of the award. “Winning this award helps build credibility as it acknowledges the potential value I could bring as an industrial designer,” he said.
You can see all the 2020 capstone designs here: https://appliedtechnology.humber.ca/shows/industrial-design-thesis-virtual-show-2020.html.
For more information on the Bachelor of Industrial Design, visit https://appliedtechnology.humber.ca/programs/bachelor-of-industrial-design.html.