Engineering Week draws to a close
Cheers and moans could be heard coming from the Sunburst Lounge as Engineering and Technology (ET) Week started to draw to a close Thursday with robot, car, paper airplane competitions and more.
Director Kevin Moore said the competition filled day started off with local elementary students participating in engineering presentations such as making devices to keep an egg from cracking when being dropped 20 feet. He also said the Center for Self Organizing and Intelligent Systems (CSOIS) spoke to the elementary students about technology and demonstrated robots.
John Jacklin, a junior majoring in aerospace engineering who was in charge of ET-Week, said about 300 students competed in the various competitions held in the Taggart Student Center Thursday.
Jacklin said the competitions included the Pinewood Derby, Paper Airplane, Mystery Design, Bridge Breaking, Robot Predator, Calculator QuickDraw, Speed Programming, Black Box, Magnetic Cannon, Petri Dish and the Beta Bowl. While many competitions required signing up to compete, others such as the Paper Airplane contest were open to anyone.
The Pinewood Derby included a standard event where cub scout rules for building the cars had to be followed and an open event where the cars could be made of anything as long as they were powered by gravity and didn’t hurt other cars or the track, Jacklin said. The Paper Airplane competition was as simple as walking up to the competition table, making a paper airplane and seeing how far it would fly.
“It was pretty impressive. The winner’s plane went about 90 feet. Mine only went 21 feet and I’m an aerospace major,” Jacklin said.
In the Mystery Design competition contestants made launching machines out of common materials and bridges were built out of balsa-wood and then tested with pressure in the Bridge Breaking competition.
The Robot competition “Predator” attracted many spectators, some with video cameras, as small box-shaped robots on wheels with legos and wires battled as predator and prey. The robots were placed on a wood board with dividers and were not controlled by remotes but were programmed in how they moved. The prey received points for touching different numbers on the board and avoiding the predator while the predator got points for touching the prey.
“We spent a lot of time on it, probably a few months. It’s fun,” John Swensen, a junior majoring in electrical engineering said.
Jacklin said the Calculator QuickDraw was a test of who could solve an equation on a calculator the quickest and in Speed Programming a problem was posted online and contestants had to make a program to solve the problem and submit it. The Black Box competition tested the ability of electrical engineers to figure out what type of circuit were inside a small black box by using voltage and other methods
Those involved in the Magnetic Cannon used wire, straw and voltage to propel a BB. The Petri Dish competition had contestants grow anything they wanted to on a petri dish for a few days, let it mold and be judged. One petri dish specimen was a dead gold fish from Wal-Mart, Jacklin said.
The Beta Bowl was modelled after Jeopardy with quesitons ranging from “What band did the late Jerry Garcia belong to?” “What is the second most Holy city in Islam” to and “What is the official name of the Engineering classroom building?”
Prizes ranging from cash and printers to USU visors and sweatshirts were given to winners in each category.
“It’s been superb. Everything has gone as planned or better,” Jacklin said.
Today a lecture on “Power Dating: A case for Effective, Affordable Dates” will be presented at 12:30 p.m. in the Engineering Building, room 105 with free pizza. Distinguished alumni will then lecture on their work. The weeks events will end at the Engineering Banquet at 6 p.m. at the Copper Mill where the Outstanding Senior, Junior and Pre-Professional from each department will be announced as well as the Outstanding Senior for the entire college. The teacher and advisor of the year will also be announced and recognized.