Freshman engineering students presented semester-long design projects at the 14th annual Freshman Engineering Design Day on Tuesday. Introduction to Engineering & Problem Solving, E101, students competed for medals among fellow classmates in the McKimmon Center.
Throughout the day, students displayed a variety of projects including arcade games, hovercrafts, bubble blowing machines, fabric buckets and concrete canoes. Each group, which consisted of four to six members, demonstrated the project to judges, who included representatives from N.C. State, Cisco, Duke Energy, Qualcomm Technologies and several others organizations. All judges volunteered for the event.
Hailey Queen, an engineering academic advisor, was the lead event coordinator and worked throughout the day to regulate competitions and volunteer participation.
“It’s really important to the freshman,” Queen said. “As engineers, we know that a lot of students are interested in engineering as a career path because of the opportunity to design, build and use their hands to create things.”
For the project, students are placed in groups according to the E101 course in which they are enrolled. This course is mandatory for all engineering students and teaches the basics of teamwork, engineering concepts and the engineering college curricula.
Queen said the course instructors use either random selection to choose groups or have students fill out compatibility surveys. Once students are placed in groups, they are able to select their project preference.
“We do try to pick projects that encompass several majors and things that they may see later on but that are also challenging to them as freshman,” Queen said.
Michelle Phillips, a senior in mechanical engineering, is a teacher assistant in an E101 section and has been helping groups with their project throughout the semester.
“The engineering fair basically gives engineering freshmen their first shot at a design project,” Phillips said. “It’s the first time they really learn how to work in a team setting as an engineer.”
Emily Argabright, a freshman in first year engineering, participated with her group in the challenge to create a concrete canoe.
The canoe was judged on its ability to float and hold different increments of weight.
Argabright said she hopes to enter the environmental engineering department and was able to use her skill set to help create her group’s canoe, which was named “Carl.”
“Environmental engineering is in the civil engineering department and I felt like [the FEDD project] fit more with my department and I thought it would be kind of cool,” Argabright said. “It’s a lot harder than it looks.”
Ryan Michael, a freshman in computer engineering, worked with his group to create an arcade game.
“I’ve always enjoyed arcade games, and I thought it would be really cool to make my own,” Michael said. “It looked more enjoyable compared to the other projects.”
Michael said his group spent 10 to 12 hours creating their final product, which was a combination between a pinball machine and a Skee-ball machine.
Throughout the day, groups competed against other projects in their category. Judges assigned points based on categories including effectiveness and creativity.
Teams Pinball Wars won the arcade games competition, Rockin’ The Boat won the concrete canoes competition, Cougars won the GE precision launcher contest and Ruby’s Angels took first place in the Rube Goldberg machine category.
Jerome Lavelle, associate dean of academic affairs from the College of Engineering, made an appearance at the event to cheer on the participants.
“This is such an important event for students to sort of highlight what they’ve done in terms of engineering and design,” Lavelle said. “If you look around, it also highlights the fact that engineers not only come up with solutions to real world problems but are also exceptionally creative.”
