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Engineers Week — 18th — 25th February, 2011
Students constructing a Rube Goldberg Machine
Engineers Week — 18th — 25th February, 2011
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View the slideshow of photos taken by ASME members chonicling the events of the week. To see the slideshow full screen, click on the rectangle with up arrow on the right side of the slideshow navigation.
AUSTIN, TEXAS—April 12, 2011
February 18 marked the start of a weeklong battle of wits, athletics, creativity, and skills. Student organizations in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin competed in numerous challenges to be crowned champions and awarded the prized Engineers Week (E-Week) trophy. With over 25 events during the week, there were countless opportunities to spend time with students outside of class and meet students from the other side of the breezeway. It was incredible seeing students go to events either to participate in the competition or cheer for their team.
Events
The University of Texas chapter of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) hosted two events during E-Week. ASME started the week right with our annual E-Week Kick-Off. ASME partnered with Fluor to serve hamburgers and hot dogs to several hundred students and faculty. The event also included a relay race, with activities like popping balloons without hands and wheelbarrow racing across the lawn much to the entertainment of audience and participants alike. The next Tuesday, ASME hosted a Capture-the-Flag competition at the main campus area. With multiple teams playing simultaneously, each team was challenged to strategically score and defend.
Engineering students of all majors showed off their moves with events like Engineers Got Talent, lip syncing, and So You Think Engineers Can Dance. Mechanical engineers recalled their statics, solids, and civil engineering classes to construct in the Micro-Catapult Competition, the Rube Goldberg Machine, and Can-Struction. The ASME Rube Goldberg team started the design and construction of their Tom & Jerry themed machine at the start of the fall semester. Intellectuals were tested with trivia from sustainability to pop culture as well as a debate on current events.
ASME was privileged with outstanding membership participation. Members demonstrated their athletic abilities by taking first place in Ultimate Frisbee and Night at the Union Bowling as well as their smarts with first place in each the Sustainable Trivia Contest, Roden Debates, and Jalapenardy. ASME took home the gold in the Micro-Catapult Contest with the most accurate catapult. As a testament to our members' enthusiasm, ASME won first place in the lip syncing contest with a fearless male member's rendition of Taylor Swift's song "Should've Said No."
All of the engineering organizations also demonstrated their continued involvement in the community with events like Introduce a Girl to Engineering, Engineering Day at the Museum (EDAM), and Can-Struction. For EDAM, ASME worked with elementary school children to build balloon cars, learning about energy sources and aerodynamics. During the Can-Struction event, ASME members collected and purchased over $100 of canned goods to be donated to the Capital Area Food Bank, winning top prize in the event. On the last day of E-Week, members of ASME taught kids about aerodynamics and fluid mechanics through wind tunnel demonstrations for Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, an event that hosts thousands of elementary to middle school children.
A week-long Scavenger Hunt challenged members to get involved further and work together to accomplish as much of a 100 item list as possible. Examples of hunt items include playing leap frog in front of the UT turtle pond, eating half a teaspoon of Wasabi without water or milk, shaving a society member's head, collecting merchandise from three UT satellite schools, and even singing the Texas school song in the middle of a Texas A&M University class. ASME completed 73 out of the 100 tasks! We even included faculty involvement like Dr. Harovel G. Wheat's excellent acting assistance in creating a promotional video convincing engineers to join ASME.
Based on member participation, event hosting, and event placing, ASME was named the 2011 E-Week large organization champion. This 2011 win is the 6th consecutive win for ASME. The diversity and enthusiasm of the ASME members makes winning and enjoying E-Week possible. Congratulations to ASME for a job well done!
While E-Week is presented as a week of fun events and competition, the true significance in the week's events is facilitating interaction between students of different majors and encouraging them to move beyond the scope of their own degree. After an entire week of friendly competition between the engineering organizations, friendships were formed not only within each organization but some also extended out to students of other engineering discipline. It was a week of fun and excitement that will not be forgotten anytime soon.
