Designing an aluminum iPhone case in three hours proved no problem for Penticton student Rylan Potter.
For the feat, the 17-year-old picked up silver on the mechanical side of the computer-aided design portion of a regional Skills Canada competition last month in Kelowna.
Potter, who attends Princes Margaret Secondary School, placed second among a dozen other competitors from his own school and others as far away as Revelstoke and Princeton.
He selected aluminum as the material of choice for his virtual iPhone case, which was designed in two pieces with plastic clips to hold it in place.
The Grade 11 student, who is contemplating a career as an automotive engineer, is in his third year of drafting classes at Maggie.
“It allows me to be creative. I like designing things and working around how to solve problems,” he said.
Teacher Patrick Whitely said Potter’s problem-solving ability helped him stand out from the other designers.
”When you go to these competitions, it’s all about problem solving and how do you think outside of the box to solve the problem, and he’s got a really good skill set for that,” Whiteley said.
Students from Whiteley’s classes have earned medals in the regional competition for 12 years in a row.
Skills Canada is a non-profit organization supported by government and industry that was created to promote to Canadian youth careers in skilled trades and technologies.
