Competitions
Competitions for Engineers Day 2023 includes nine competitions hosted by organizations from around the college. View a full list of rules and regulations for the competitions.
Balloon Skewer Competition
Hosted by Fibers and Composites Manufacturing Facility
The purpose of the competition is to introduce the students to the polymer characteristics by putting a skewer through a balloon without popping it. Our competition will have two categories:
- The fastest Balloon Skewer: the winner will be the individual who will be the fastest to put the skewer through the balloon without popping it.
- The most skewers in a balloon: the winner will be the individual who will put the most skewers through a balloon without popping it within 3 minutes.
Balsa Wood Bridge Competition
Hosted by American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Bridges made in advance. The objective of this event is to design and construct the lightest bridge capable of supporting a given load over a given span. The bridge must allow the passage of one Hot Wheels Car of any variety along the entire length.
Cup Stacking Experiment
Hosted by Alpha Omega Epsilon
Participants compete as a team to stack a set of 10 cups using strings tied to a rubber band. Modifications can be made to increase the difficulty, and the fastest team wins. The overall goal is to use a simple, highly competitive task to emphasize the importance of strategy and communication in engineering.
Egg Drop Competition
Hosted by Materials Research Society
Devices made in advance. Teams of high school students test their engineering design skills to create a vehicle that will allow an egg to drop safely from a height of approximately 50 ft without breaking. In order to maximize their scores, students are encouraged to carefully select and minimize the variety of materials used in their designs.
Pasta Vehicle Building Competition
Hosted by Institute of Transportation Engineers
Participants will be supplied with various types of dried pasta and gorilla glue / hot glue in order to make a vehicle out of pasta. There will be two categories, one for form and one for function. The teams that create the best vehicle from each category will win a prize.
Penny Boat Competition
Hosted by Tickle College of Engineering’s Office of Student Success
Work individually or in groups of 2-3. Each will be given a square of aluminum foil and a certain number of pennies. Groups/Individuals are to construct a boat out of the foil to hold as many pennies as possible without sinking.
Quiz Bowl Competition
Hosted by Tau Beta Pi
The quiz bowl consists of three rounds of questions related to engineering and math. Teams that perform well in the first round continue to the second round and likewise to the third round where the team that scores the best wins the competition.
Radiation Shield Competition
Hosted by American Nuclear Society and Women in Nuclear
Shields made in advance. Student teams will submit their shields (made before coming to campus for the competition) to the competition moderating team. These shields must be no larger than 6” x 6” x 1” (they can be smaller but they must be supported by the stand) and must have a minimum weight of 15 grams. The team will take the shields, weigh them, and test them using a Sodium-Iodide detector and a lab radiation source (Cobalt – 60). The Cobalt source will emit gamma rays (in very safe amounts!), and the Sodium-Iodide counter will count the number of emissions that are not stopped by the shield. We will start by recording the counts without the shield, and then take three different counts with the shield. The source will be moved up against the shield and the detector will be moved 2” from the other side of the shield. Both the source and the detector will be centered about 3” off of the table. The resulting average number of counts will then be divided by the counts without the shield, and then multiplied by the weight of the shield (measured in grams) in order to open the competition to more variations of shield material. The group with the lowest score wins.
Hint: Elements with a high atomic number block gamma rays best (but watch the weight)!
Rocky Top Stand Competition
Hosted by Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
Groups will compete in making a structure out of foam that they can stand on. (Please note that students will be assigned a group at random and not based on school.)