Engineers, architects gather at competition

Architects and Engineers flocked to the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building yesterday in an effort to display their talents in a public forum.

Eighty-seven people participated in a boat building competition, which was part of Engineers Week and sponsored by the mechanical engineering honor society, Pi Tau Sigma.

Contestants were given 10 minutes to construct a floating device using five Styrofoam peanuts, five popsicle sticks, five toothpicks, foil and a few small pieces of tape.

"The first-place prize is an HP graphing calculator. You get 10 minutes to build the boat, then however long it takes to test it. They load (their boat) with pennies until it sinks," said Engineering junior Jackie Buttrick, one of the event's organizers.

MALLORY S.E. FLOYD/Daily Engineering students laugh at the failure of their "boat" at the boat building competition held at the EECS Building yesterday. The event was part of Engineers Week.

The object of the competition was to create a boat that would hold the most pennies without sinking.

Many Engineering students said they considered naval architecture students to be the favorites in the race for the sturdiest sea vessel. But Todd Zagumny, a University alumnus and corporate recruiter from the Raytheon Corporation, won the event and logged the highest coin count at 189 pennies.

Buttrick said the boat building competition was open to anyone wanting to participate. Several faculty members also inquired about an opportunity to compete, but eventually decided not to participate.

Most of the participants placed the Styrofoam peanuts on the bottom, holding them together with the five toothpicks. Although many of the boats looked similar, the differences in performance resulted from intricate considerations such as toothpick angling and popsickle stick positioning.

Every participant who constructed a boat deemed seaworthy was given a University Engineering Week T-shirt.

Engineering junior Carol Lee said she did not feel much pressure to win but was happy to work on an activity with her Engineering cohorts.

"I think we have no chance" of winning, Lee said. "But it's just for fun."

Zagumny's first-place effort was followed by Engineering junior Michael Baldarotta whose boat remained afloat with 152 pennies. Engineering graduate student Weiping Zhong finished in third-place with 143 pennies.

02-24-98