Undergrads can eat their way through this year’s Engineering Day, with a number of food-based contests that put their skills to use without feeling like another assignment, organizers said.
Among the Thursday, Nov. 6, offerings is a contest to build the fastest car you can consume. Meredith Huszagh (BME’16), president of the School of Engineering Council, said E-Day will provide the food — cucumber chassis, pretzel stick axles, cookie wheels and more — and participants will build the cars and roll them down a tilted table.
Another contest invites participants to construct bridges out of toothpicks and Dots gumdrops. Even the cornhole competition will come with a side of popcorn and cotton candy.
“The past few years, E-Day has been two or three activities in the afternoon that were very traditional engineering things to do – bridge building, Rube Goldberg machines, things like that,” Huszagh said. “Engineering students can be so overwhelmed mid-year, the last thing they want to do is more engineering. We want to make this a stress reliever.”
But for those who want a little more brain-flexing, the schedule still includes a Rubik’s Cube competition – along with a looping video explaining how to crack the algorithm – and Code Golf, which invites participants to write code for assigned tasks in the fewest keystrokes possible.
Also new this year is E-Day going into E-Night, with a s’mores roast from 8-10 p.m. Two fire pits will light up the student study patio off Featheringill Hall and provide a time for pure socialization with no contests, Huszagh said.
She hopes that undergrads from other schools will want to join in the food and fun. “Most students who aren’t in engineering don’t even want to come into Featheringill,” she quipped.
E-Day Schedule
11 a.m.-4 p.m.: Tie-dyeing t-shirts; cornhole and other games; Rubik’s Cube station (Featheringill Atrium)
12:30-2 p.m.: Edible car building (Featheringill 110)
2-3:30 p.m.: Bridge-building with toothpicks and Dots candy; Minute to Win It competition (Jacobs Believed in Me Auditorium/Featheringill 134)
5-6 p.m.: Code Golf (Featheringill 138)
6:30-8 p.m.: Trivia night and catered dinner from Maggiano’s (Featheringill Atrium)
8-10 p.m.: S’mores (Featheringill patio)
Sponsoring organizations
School of Engineering Council, Chi Epsilon, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Tau Beta Pi, Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Engineering World Health (EWH), VandyApps, Theta Tau, American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE)
Contact
Heidi Hall, (615) 322-6614
Heidi.Hall@Vanderbilt.edu
On Twitter @VUEngineering