Stephen Smith, a junior in mechanical engineering, is this year’s Mr. Engineer. Representing his major as Mr. Mechanical, Smith competed in the Mr. Engineering Pageant, a talent show hosted by the Society of Women Engineers, to raise money for Relay for Life. Technician caught up with Smith after the pageant to discuss his involvement in the pageant and to find out more about his secret talent.

Technician: How did you get involved in the Mr. Engineering Pageant?

Smith: Last year I actually hung some flyers up for it. It’s basically a talent competition. It was promoting Relay for Life, which is for cancer research, so I thought it was pretty cool. Last year I didn’t have time to look into it and this year I thought “oh, I’m not really doing anything at the beginning of the semester,” so I submitted an application in October and they called me up to represent mechanical engineering.

Technician: Can you tell me a little bit about your talent?

Smith: I don’t have a name for it, but I solved a Rubik’s cube on a unicycle.

Technician: So were you riding around on the unicycle or just balancing on it?

Smith: I rode in a circle onstage. I had a friend of mine – a girl – sit in a chair; she was dressed up kind of geeky. Then I ran onstage, looking geeky… I was like, “I should impress her — I’ll ride around on a unicycle.” The judges mixed up a Rubik’s cube and I got on [the unicycle] and rode around in circles around her solving [the cube]. I gave [the finished cube] to her, like “I solved it for you.”

Technician: Did you train for that?

Smith: I’ve known how to do a Rubik’s cube for a while – it’s just one of those things I just picked up. I learned to ride a unicycle in junior high school. Someone dared me to try both at the same time a while back, and it’s not actually that hard. If you can do both, you can do both at the same time. It was a lot of fun and I didn’t have to practice too much because I’ve done it before.

Technician: What else was included in the Mr. Engineer Pageant?

Smith: It started with an introduction of all the people from the different majors. For the introduction, everyone wore something related to their major – it’s supposed to be kind of funny. Last year, the winner was in electrical engineering – he wore Christmas lights to represent electrical engineering. The aerospace guy wore rockets on his back, the civil guy had construction stuff on and the textile guy had a reflective vest. I made a duct tape suit…

After the introductions they did the talent section and an interview section, where we all came on stage and answered a question pertaining to our major. It was pretty straightforward – kind of like a beauty pageant.

Technician: Do you get a special prize for being Mr. Engineer?

Smith: They gave me a crown and a sash, like you would do at a pageant. I also got a gift card to Best Buy. I wasn’t expecting that; I thought it was just a for-fun thing.