Competitions for Engineers Day 2020 include seven competitions hosted by organizations from around the college. This year’s competitions include the Nuclear Word Vacuum Competition, the Quiz Bowl, the Radiation Shielding Competition, the Rocky Top Stand, the Rube Goldberg Machine Competition, The Marshmallow Challenge, and the Virtual Bridge Design Competition. View a full list of rules and regulations for the competitions.
The Marshmallow Challenge
Hosted by: Society of Women Engineers
The Marshmallow challenge has become a popular exercise in which small groups are asked to build the “tallest free-standing structure” out of the materials listed. You’ll have twenty minutes to complete this task including assembling the large marshmallow on top. It’s a fun and interactive exercise that allows teams to experience simple lessons in collaboration, innovation, design, and creativity.
2020 Results
| School | Team | Score (Finish) |
|---|---|---|
| Hardin Valley Academy | Hardin Valley Team 1 | 781 (1st) |
| Career Magnet Academy | T5 | 744.5 (2nd) |
| Career Magnet Academy | Mochi | 697.25 (3rd) |
| Oak Ridge High School | Walker Rice | 647.5 (4th) |
| Germantown High School | Germantown Red Devils | Place 647 (5th) |
| Hardin Valley Academy | Hardin Valley Team 2 | 593 (6th) |
| Oak Ridge High School | Nicholas Zoinierczuk | 547.2 (7th) |
| Southwind High School | Team Savannah | 535.83 (8th) |
| Lincoln County High School | Spaghetti Nerds | Place 517.88 (9th) |
| Austin East High | Austin-East High Roborunners Team 1 | 490 (10th) | Career Magnet Academy | Carolyn & Jared | 471 (11th) | Southwind High School | Team Yacely | 409.33 (12th) |
| Ooltewah High School | Marshmallow Mommas | 384 (13th) |
| Austin East High | Austin-East High Roborunners Team 2 | 274 (14th) |
| Cannon County High School | Cannon Lions 3 | 257 (15th) |
| Cannon County High School | Cannon Lions 2 | 247 (16th) |
| Walker Valley High School | Walker Valley SWE-Next Club | 63 (17th) |
| Austin East High | Austin-East High Roborunners Team 3 | 48.5 (18th) |
| Cannon County High School | Cannon Lions 5 | 42 (19th) |
| Cannon County High School | Cannon Lions 1 | 39 (20th) |
| Cannon County High School | Cannon Lions 4 | 30 (21st) |
Nuclear Word Vacuum Competition
Hosted by: Institute of Nuclear Materials Management
Teams of eight will compete to name the most nuclear based words while not using banned words to describe them. The team with the most points at the end of their 45 minute session is the winner.
Quiz Bowl
Hosted by: Tau Beta Pi
The Quiz Bowl gives visiting students a chance to show how much they know about science and math topics by working in teams of four to complete a thirty-minute written examination consisting of sixty to seventy multiple choice questions. The eight teams with the best scores advance to the semifinal round, and the contest concludes with the four top teams going head-to-head for the coveted Quiz Bowl Championship.
2020 Results
| Team | Finish |
|---|---|
| Hardin Valley Academy STEM 1 | 1st |
| Lenoir City High School | 2nd |
| Wildcat Quiz Masters | 3rd |
| Germantown High School Team A | 4th |
| Breaking Rads | 5th |
| L&N STEM Academy | 6th |
| ACCTC Navigators | 7th |
| Sevier County | 8th |
| Limit Breakers | 9th |
| Limit Breakers | 10th |
| Limit Breakers | 11th |
| Hardin Valley Academy STEM 2 | 12th |
| Germantown High School Team B | 13th |
| Team 19 | 14th |
| Team 18 | 15th |
Radiation Shielding Competition
Hosted by: American Nuclear Society
Students must make a shield no larger than the dimensions stated and no bigger than 15 grams that will be the best at shielding gamma rays. They will be mailed in to the college to be tested using a Cobalt-60 source and an NaI detector to determine the count rate from various distances from the shield.
2020 Results
| Participants | Finish |
|---|---|
| Ronald Gates, Braylen Thornhill, and DJ Wood | 1st |
| Kyndall Collins and Oliver Pattilo | 2nd |
| Gavin Gooeckner and Jared Wood | 3rd |
Rocky Top Stand Competition
Hosted by: Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
The objective is for students to design a structure out of a foam board. The structure needs to be at least 6 inches off the ground and it has to be big enough for them to stand on it with both feet.
Rube Goldberg Machine Competition
Hosted by: Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
Your task for this Rube Goldberg machine competition is to create the most elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that can pour a glass of water and take a video of it working.
2020 Results
Individual Students
| Student | Finish |
|---|---|
| Caitlin Pendley | 1st |
| James Rogers | 2nd |
| Alex Shanafield | 3rd |
| Amelie Nagle | Honorable Mention |
Classes
| School | Finish |
|---|---|
| Carter High School | 1st |
| Farragut High School | 2nd |
| Anderson County Career and Technical Center | 3rd |
Virtual Bridge Design Competition
Hosted by: American Society of Civil Engineers
Schools will design bridges using Bridge Designer and will be tested to see which bridge can stand up to specified loading conditions.
2020 Results
| Student | School | Finish |
|---|---|---|
| Tommy Slatton | Lenoir City High School | 1st | Zephirin Schmidt | Oak Ridge High School | 2nd | Jonie Lopez and Brayden Pass | Lenoir City High School | 3rd | Adam Blanchard | Oak Ridge High School | 4th | Alexander Yonkers | Lincoln County High School | 5th | Ivan Keller | Walker Valley High School | 6th | Sophia Paris and Ivan Usynin | Hardin Valley Academy | 7th | Gustavo Solis Contreras | Lincoln County High School | 8th | Andrew Lee | Oak Ridge High School | 9th | Timothy James | — | 10th | Parker Merrit | Gibbs High School | 11th | Rose Farahi | Oak Ridge High School | 12th |
Exhibit Award Winners
Class I Exhibits
- First Place: “EECS Art Exhibit” by Systers: Women in EECS @ UTK
- Second Place: “Where Medical Devices are Used and Why” by Engineers in Medicine
- Third Place: “Newton’s Laws of Motion” by National Society of Black Engineers
Class II Exhibits
- First Place (tie): “Introduction to Composites Manufacturing and Destructive Testing” by Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE)
- First Place (tie): “Egg Drop Demonstration” by Materials Research Society
- Second Place: “How you can take your education and help those who need it most!” by Engineers Without Borders
- Third Place: “The Other Side of Nuclear Engineering” by INMM with HIPS/WISE
Class III Exhibits
- First Place: “Wind Tunnel and Aerodynamics” by NASA ULI
- Second Place: “MABEline Synthetic Cadaver” by Biomedical Engineering Society
- Third Place: “Research at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility” by MABE Faculty