The Society of Women Engineers sponsored the first Mr. Engineer Pageant Friday in Stewart Theatre with more than 200 students in attendance. The pageant coordinators designed the event as a way to raise money for SWE’s Relay for Life team and they hope to make the event an annual tradition.

Lisa Moll, a junior in material science and engineering, said the purpose of the event was to raise money for a worthy cause and bring attention to the Society of Women Engineers as well as the College of Engineering.

“We have participated in Relay for Life for the past two years and we were trying to think of a unique way to raise money,” Moll said. “We only thought of this idea in January, so everything had to be planned in two months.”

Friday’s competition for the title of Mr. Engineer was between 11 male engineering students from different departments within the College of Engineering. Moll said 12 finalists were selected from approximately 25 applications. One of the finalists was unable to participate because of illness.

“The application asked questions on career goals, school involvement and why they wanted to participate in this event,” Moll said. “All of the applications were good and it was hard to make the selection.”

The students competed in four categories: interview, talent, business attire and a practice FE exam. The FE exam is a standard engineering exam that was taken beforehand and comprised 10 of the 100 total possible points in the competition.

Four judges gave up to 35 points for talent, 35 points for an on-stage interview, and 10 points for “professional attire.”

“The professional attire was a creative way for the competitors to represent their major,” Moll said. “For example, the construction engineer wore a costume shaped like a bulldozer.”

Trey Warren, the construction engineer in question, ended up winning the title of Mr. Engineer. Warren said his friends ask him to participate and he agreed because he saw that it was for a good cause.

“My costume was a lot of work, but it was worth it. All of the participants were very talented and I had a great time participating,” Warren said. “I think it was run very well for the first year. It can definitely be bigger and better in the future as more people get involved.”

Warren’s talent was a song he wrote and played on the guitar about the Mr. Engineer pageant. References to the University and the College of Engineering in his song made it successful with the audience.

The runner-up for the Mr. Engineer pageant was Jordan Shelly who represented civil engineering. In addition, the audience had the opportunity to select a People’s Choice winner by writing the name of their favorite engineer on a slip of paper.

The People’s Choice winner was Richard Pridgen, a senior in paper science and chemical engineering who represented chemical engineering in the pageant.

“I did it against my better judgment, but I had a lot of fun,” Pridgen said. “It’s cool to meet people in other disciplines of engineering. There were some majors I had never even heard of.”

Pridgen’s talent was a song he improvised after asking a member of the audience to tell him what he should sing about. The topic was puppies.

Diana Beck, a sophomore in psychology, attended the pageant because her friend was a member of the Society of Women Engineers and she thought it sounded interesting.

“It definitely met my expectations. It was really entertaining and all of the guys did a good job,” Beck said. “My favorite was Mr. Chemical Engineer because his song made the whole audience laugh.”

Tickets were sold for $3, which resulted in a total of more than $600 raised for SWE’s Relay-for-Life team.