The fifth annual Make-A-Thon took place over the weekend at Hunt Library, challenging students to make an impact on sustainability. Giving students only 72 hours, students are challenged to come up with an idea and a design, and pitch it to the judges on the third day for a chance to win.
Chester Miller, director of Living and Learning Initiatives, has been part of planning the Make-A-Thon since its launch in 2015 and has been able to watch the event grow each year. The idea for the annual Make-A-Thon was inspired by the College of Engineering’s capstone project.
“They chose areas of sustainability that they were passionate about the most and may have impacted them personally,” Miller said. “Just having general knowledge about the state of these challenges that may exist on the NC State campus, or in the Raleigh community.”
In teams of three or four, students came together to ignite their passions in forms of sustainability. Jack Barkley, a fourth-year studying industrial design, said his team’s idea has been in the works since 2014.
“I started playing shamisen, a Chinese instrument, and the pick it is used with is made out of tortoise shells, which are not sustainable at all,” Barkley said. “They have been trying to find replacements for this for years with no success.”
This passion is what led Jack and his teammates to build a solution, to use 3D printing with recycled plastic to create new objects, such as shamisen picks.
Jack and his teammates went on to win second place overall with a $1,000 prize.
There were three overall winners announced, each accompanied with a grand prize. The other two winners were Team 8 in third place for their idea in forecasting food waste winning $500, and Team 5 in first, with their idea for a package free campus grocery store, taking home the largest prize of $2,000.
Miller closed the event reflecting on the event’s meaning, in the context of NC State.
“NC State’s motto is ‘Think and Do,’ and Make-A-Thon is a very good example of how we are challenging students to contribute to what ‘Think and Do’ means,” Miller said.
