For the 16th time, young engineers went head‑to‑head at the CADrina competition, organized by the local secondary school and named as a word play on the name of the town where the competition is held, Kadrina. What began as a purely CAD‑focused contest has, over the years, evolved into a full‑scale IT and technology festival, featuring an entire week of activities designed to foster creativity, smart thinking, and engineering skills. PLM Group has had the pleasure of partnering with Dassault Systèmes to support the event for several consecutive years, helping to give additional momentum to this inspiring initiative.
On 2 April 2026, the engineering week and CADrina festival hosted at Kadrina Keskkool culminated in the final competition. Six teams of three faced off against one another. They previously earned their place in the final through a preliminary round with a total 11 teams competing for a place in the final.
In her opening remarks, school principal Evelin Teiva highlighted the broader meaning of the event: “CADrina is a genuine example of how one school, one community, and one idea can grow into something that inspires and connects.”
“It is a place where technical skills gain wings, creativity is given room to grow, and people find support in one another. It is a place where education is not only about knowledge, but also about the feeling that you are capable of creating, changing, and making an impact,” she states.
This year, unmanned aerial vehicles took center stage. The competition task was to design a drone inspired by the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Particular emphasis was placed on both precision and time management.
Winners straight from a springboard to the future
In the CADrina 2026 final, team Solaride claimed the first place. Solaride, an initiative with roots in the University of Tartu, focused initially just on building the Baltics’ first solar car. However, they’ve since grown into an even wider interdisciplinary education and collaboration project. Against this background, it comes as no surprise that Solaride’s representatives delivered such a strong result. The team themselves emphasized that thorough preparation was the key to their success.
Team Tõkatõka from Tallinn University of Applied Sciences claimed the second place. Third place went to team Level from Tartu Raatuse School.
Engineering can soar thanks to a well‑prepared runway
Events like CADrina help pave the way from curiosity to competence and real‑world practice. They offer students the opportunity to experience how ideas turn into models. And from there, strudents see how models, in turn, become projects and complete systems. Early access to modern tools and inspiring hands‑on challenges is crucial for the development of the next generation of engineers.
Read more about the engineering and software solutions for schools here.
