Competitions
Competitions for Engineers Day 2024 includes nine competitions hosted by organizations from around the college. View a full list of rules and regulations for the competitions.
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.
Capture the Flag
Hosted by Systers and HackUTK
Students will work in small teams (1-3 members) and must race against the clock to solve as many ciphers and related problems as they can before the competition’s end.
Cup Stacking Experiment
Hosted by Alpha Omega Epsilon
Students will work together in teams of 4-6 people to stack the cups into a pyramid without using their hands to touch the cup. This is done by members working together to expand and contract the rubber band (with their individual pieces of string) around the cups to stack them. The team with the fastest built pyramid wins.
Design Challenge
Hosted by Biomedical Engineering Society
This challenge has students design an item that helps improve people’s day to day lives. Once at our table students will be given supplies to draw out their device. If needed we will give them specific problems to solve but we really want this to be an activity where students can be as creative as they possibly can.
Egg Drop Competition
Hosted by Materials Research Society
Devices made in advance. The event consists of dropping an egg in a contraption made by participants off a bridge onto a target. Participants make a contraption of various household or store-bought materials with the goal of preventing the egg from breaking when dropped. The event encourages the participant to consider their contraption from a materials design perspective, including factors like contraption weight and complexity.
Lego Assembly Line Competition
Hosted by The Institute for Industrial and Systems Engineers
Teams of 2-4 students compete to strategically build a lego design that is built the quickest with the best quality compared to opposing teams.
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.
Prosthetic Challenge
Hosted by Biomedical Engineering Society
Devices made in advance. This challenge has students design a usable, below knee, leg prosthetic with found items. Students will design and construct a leg prosthetic within the criteria mentioned in the guidelines/rules that can hold weight, allow students to walk and jump, be comfortable to wear, as well as get in and out of chairs. This challenge can be completed individually as well as in teams of any size!
Quiz Bowl
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. The competition aims to introduce high school students to an aspect of nuclear engineering: radiation shielding. Students will prepare at home a shield that meets the guidelines in the rules and bring it to Engineers Day. Each shield will be tested to see how effectively it blocks radiation from a Co-60 source and the team with the lowest detected count rate relative to the weight of the shield wins.
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.
Surveying Competition
Hosted by Chi Epsilon
Participants compete as a team to use surveying equipment, known as a total station, to measure the heights of UTK landmarks on campus from the John D. Tickle Building. Students will understand the methods civil engineers use to obtain measurements in the field and use effective teamwork skills. The team with the closest measurement to the correct height of the landmark will be deemed the winner.
Windmill Blades Competition
Hosted by American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
Students will be designing windmill blades out of provided materials to see who can generate the greatest amount of energy.