This year, our team had a total of 48 members, composed primarily of Engineering, Agriculture, and Computer Science students. With the introduction of a new, vertical shaft Kawasaki engine for the 2025 competition year, our team took on an ambitious, complete redesign of the tractor. We developed and built a zero-turn, skid-steer style design featuring a fully electric drivetrain. With these changes came many challenges. From technical challenges with controllers, to organizational challenges of managing timelines, our team members put in a ton of hard work and effort. The amount of interconnected mechanical, electrical, and software systems made this year's tractor a real learning experience in inter-disciplinary design. In particular, our team learned a lot of technical skills regarding electric motor control, gearbox design, and fiberglass paneling. Our build crew had lots of fun learning new manufacturing techniques and developing new fabrication tooling - including a hydraulic press, plasma cutter guide, hydraulic run-up unit, and fiberglass mouldings. More than a few 3D printed nick-nacks and mini tractors welded from bolts/nuts kept showing up around the shop.

Overall, this year's IQS competition went well. Our team placed 17th out of 23 total teams, with our team excelling at the marketing and presentation aspects. We placed 7th with our design reports, and 4th in defensive design presentations. Our tractor successfully made it through technical inspections; however, due to controllability issues and unreliability in our belt-drive system, our team was unable to perform in the dynamic events. Belt failures aside, the team made the most of the weekend by working long hours and putting in a good effort. All of our members got a chance to enjoy driving the tractor around the fairgrounds, and a personal highlight of the trip was getting to see our tractor do donuts out in the parking lot. It was a really great experience getting to see all the other teams (especially our fellow Canadian teams) and making many new friendships.

Throughout the year our team also took time for team building and fun. Some highlights include team outings such as speed world and skating at the forks, as well self-hosted events such as our rulebook quiz night. We had a lot of great sponsors this year, but a definite highlight for the team was the facility tours and design reviews conducted with industry professionals at Elmers Manufacturing, MacDon Industries, and Arrowquip/Yakta. Working closely with many of our local industry partners provided a ton of opportunity and growth to all members of the team.

Kameron Ronald Team Captain
University of Manitoba Association of Tiny Tractors
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