MDL CAD Designathon — Liam Boone

The Competition 01

24 Hours to Design,
CAD, and Present

The McMaster Design League CAD Designathon is an open competition for engineering students from universities across Ontario. Teams are given a real design brief and a hard deadline, around 24 hours, to produce a complete proposal: concept, full CAD model, stress analysis, and a polished presentation.

The brief for this edition came from Unified Engineering: design a cantilever solar carport. The structure needed to shield vehicles from rain and snow, collect solar energy, and be structurally sound under a range of weather conditions - all with one side cantilevered to keep the parking area clear of columns.

After a long night of work, our team, Team Better Mech, presented in front of a panel of experienced industry judges alongside 12 other teams.

Liam Boone

Colin Parks

Adam Awde

Tyler Lounsbury

Final CAD render — cantilever solar carport with concrete pier foundations

Our Approach 02

Manufacturability First,
Innovation Second

Many teams focused on exotic features. Our differentiator was grounding everything in practical engineering reality. Every feature we proposed had a clear manufacturing process behind it and a validated stress case to support it.

We ran full structural analysis to confirm the cantilevered structure could handle the design loads including wind, snow accumulation, and self-weight with appropriate safety factors. The foundation system used concrete piers, sized to resist the moment loads generated by the cantilever.

On top of that structural baseline, we layered several innovative features that genuinely improved the product. Each one was framed not just as a concept but as a feasible addition given the structural framework we'd already validated.

300 Students participating

24h Design window

4 Team members

Design Features 03

What Made Our
Design Stand Out

01

Heated Glass Panels

Integrated resistance heating elements in the solar panel glass to actively melt accumulated snow — maintaining energy output year-round without manual clearing.

02

Automated Sprinkler System

A panel-mounted sprinkler circuit to flush pollen, dust, and debris from the solar surface — preserving collection efficiency across all seasons.

03

Full Stress Validation

Structural analysis on the cantilevered frame under wind load, snow accumulation, and self-weight — with explicit safety factors and material specifications.

04

Manufacturability Focus

Every component was designed with real fabrication constraints in mind: standard steel sections, welded connections, and bolt-together assembly for field installation.

Presentation Slides 04