The School of Engineering last week celebrated its 4th annual Engineering Week (E−week) which featured a series of events to promote engineering throughout the university and embrace camaraderie among different fields of engineering.
This year's E−week, which was organized by the Engineering Student Council (ESC), included activities put on by various student organizations and the eight pre−professional organizations affiliated with the School of Engineering, according to ESC President Maren Frisell, a senior.
Members of different engineering fields competed in events such as a silk cocoon race, a robotics competition and a Halo tournament. Other activities included a networking event and the perennially popular game show−style "Date an Engineer."
Each team of engineers earns points based on its attendance at the Engineering Week lectures and its success in the competitions, according to ESC Treasurer Ashley Martin.
The combined civil and environmental engineering group won for the fourth straight year with 28.4 points, followed by biomedical in second and mechanical in third, according to Martin, a junior.
This year's E−week was celebrated on the Hill a week later than the national celebration, according to Frisell.
"It was actually [the week before], but we changed it to get an extra day because we had Monday off," Frisell said.
Frisell said the ESC's goal during its second year sponsoring E−week was to increase communication among all engineering majors.
"We just want to promote engineering throughout the entire school and encourage people to participate and boost spirit throughout the School of Engineering, because the way it is now is every engineering program has a different school," she said.
E−week allows all engineers to see each other since the different engineering majors are separated into three buildings, Martin said.
"If you're in Anderson [Hall], then you never see anyone who's in Halligan or SciTech [Science and Technology Center], so it's a way to get everybody in the same place at the same time," Martin said.
Frisell added that all of the events except "Date an Engineer" were new. Some of the new activities included a density jar competition, a tallest−structure competition involving marshmallows and spaghetti, a Lego competition and an open forum with Dean of the School of Engineering Linda Abriola.
"There [was an] open forum with Dean Abriola, which is huge because her time is very limited," Frisell said. "She [gave] a talk about demographics in the School of Engineering — so funding, construction and where she sees the school going."
"‘Date an Engineer' is a pretty big event and [nearly] everyone from the whole school comes to it, and SWE [the Society of Women Engineers] does that," she said.
"Date an Engineer" was the most−attended event this year, according to ESC Publicity Chair Laura Burns, a sophomore who won a date at the event.
"There are four rounds of it. Two of them had a girl buying for three guys, and then two of them had a guy buying for three girls," she said. "They always ask dorky engineering questions, and it's funny. It's a good time."
Burns added that the density jar competition was also very popular.
"Basically, we had different jars of liquid and we had to figure out what order to put them in so that they would layer up properly," she said. "So there was honey, syrup, and soap and a variety of things."
Burns said this year's E−week was well publicized, so more engineers were aware of the schedule of events and the competitions. The ESC decorated the buildings and put up posters with Quick Response (QR) Codes so people could scan them using their smartphones and link to the website with the schedule of events. They also handed out E−week buttons and bracelets.
"Each engineering major has an associated society with it, so each one of those respective groups emailed their members too to let them know about [E−week]," Burns said. "The buttons and bracelets were a new addition this year. I think we're going to do that every year and have them be collectors' items."
Burns — who on Monday was elected ESC President for next year — said the ESC is looking to alter the schedule of events for E−week next year.
"We had some new events this year, some of the activities were switched up, but for the most part it was the same structure, and I think that's something we're going to think about changing for next year," she said.
