SYDE 286Mechanics of Deformable Solids

Units: 0.50
Faculty: Engineering
Subject: Systems Design Engineering

When it runs

Ran in 3 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

Introduction to mechanical response of materials and stress-strain relationship. Behaviour of prismatic members in tension, compression, shear, bending and torsion. Shear-force and bending-moment diagrams. Introduction to instability.

Prerequisites

Complete all of the following
- Students must be in level 2A or higher
- Enrolled in H-Systems Design Engineering

Antirequisites

Not completed nor concurrently enrolled in any of the following:
- BME281 - Mechanics of Deformable Solids (0.50)
- CIVE204 - Solid Mechanics 1 (0.50)
- ME219 - Mechanics of Deformable Solids 1 (0.50)

Leads to

Fall 2026 sections

Enrolment from UW Open Data, which can trail Quest by up to two days. Instructors and rooms: Schedule of Classes.
Section	Class	Enrolled	Meets
LEC 001	4765	98 / 110	W 11:00–12:20 F 09:30–10:50
TUT 101	4766	98 / 110	F 08:30–09:20

Reviewed on UW Flow

42% liked it35% easy70% useful

From 50 ratings and 7 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

reem roufail when i get you reem roufail

Dec 2024 · didn’t like it · 4 found this helpfulOn UW Flow Remove this
Unless you're planning to do structural/materials in the future, not so relevant and a bit dry. On the whole though, the content is pretty easy to cram before midterm/final.

Dec 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW Flow Remove this
The course was pretty clear and straightforward, and relatively easy to cram. Unless you go into civil/materials, not relevant.

Dec 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW Flow Remove this
SYDE 286 contains fundamental mechanical knowledge that any engineer should know. Reem Roufail has good intentions to teach but doesn’t quite succeed. However, her project is very interesting and labs are applicable and connected to course content. Slides are really well done and make cramming easy. Overall a very interesting course and applicable in anything physical. As someone who is getting into 3D printing, this course gave me helpful intuition in design and printing practices.

Nov 2025 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this
The concepts are not too hard to grasp honestly and most of the grinding for this course happened right before the exams. Very self-teachable course and something worth grinding with friends to understand if your prof is bad.

Jun 2023 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

2 posts and comments in 2 threads mention SYDE 286, October 2017 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Winter 2022

Apr 26, 2022 Undergrad courses I've taken tier list (details in comments) 161 points, 13 comments

u/MindTheGap9: “… - SYDE262 - ECON101 but somehow less interesting - SYDE286 - Weird prosthetic foot aside, one of the more "real engineering courses" of my undergrad. Also when I learned a shockingly high percentage of my class can't draw free body diagrams. …”

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Fall 2017

Oct 28, 2017 Any way to disable UWCourseLinker from posting? 16 points, 26 comments

“posting a reply to my comment I find the bot annoying.”

u/Jackhofmann: “… SYDE 113 SYDE 121 SYDE 161 SYDE 181 SYDE 182 SYDE 202 SYDE 212 SYDE 252 SYDE 262 SYDE 283 SYDE 286 SYDE 292 SYDE 292L SYDE 401 SYDE 411 SYDE 461 SYDE 533 SYDE 543 SYDE 553 SYDE 575 SYDE 631 SYDE 677 SYDE 682 SYDE 740 SYDE 750 SYDE 770 SYDE 780 TAX 600 TAX 614 TAX 616 TAX 619 TAX …”