U of T students take top spot at Canadian Engineering Competition

Rafael Jabbour, Alina Khan, Lavneet Sidhu and Daniel Rolfe, all third-year computer engineering students in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, have received the top prize in the programming category at the 2026 Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC).

Organized by the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students, the competition brings together students from across the country to compete in categories that test technical, design and communication skills.

The U of T team earned first place for developing an augmented reality platform that enables building inspectors to identify defects using a smartphone, securing the university's first win in the programming category in more than two decades and first in any category since 2022.

“They asked us to use augmented reality (AR) to support building inspectors and address real-world problems," said Khan. "Given the short timeline of only eight hours, we focused on balancing ambition with execution."

“We designed an AR solution where you point your phone around a room, see defect markers overlaid, track damage over time and collaborate with property owners,” added Jabbour. “What really set us apart though was that we were the only team with true 3D AR, which is extremely hard to pull off on the web, alongside a web app with 2D AR."

For Sidhu, the victory was a "surreal" accomplishment. “We went into the competition aiming to place top three, but at the start of the awards ceremony we had no expectations, only hopes. The moment itself was just ecstatic," he said.

The quartet earned the chance to compete at the CEC after placing first at the Ontario Engineering Competition, which they qualified for after winning first place at the U of T Engineering Competitions.

Read the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering story

Read about the Canadian Engineering Competition