News Release
UC San Diego Kicks off 'E' Week
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| UC San Diego engineering students will drop tomatoes from a balloon floating 100 feet in the air during the E Games. |
San Diego, CA, February 11, 2009 -- What do a golden calculator and tomatoes have in common? Find out during Engineers Week at the University of California, San Diego February 17-20. E-Week kicks off on February 17 with the popular E-Games, which unite teams from 18 engineering student organizations in a day long competition as they compete for the coveted Golden Calculator, the grand prize given to the winning team after three grueling engineering design competitions. The games include the Rover Ride in which teams of three will participate in a bicycle relay race around Warren Mall on the UC San Diego campus. A measuring apparatus will be connected to the front of the bike and will hold cups of water. The rider will have to navigate through a variety of obstacles and turns to return the bike for the next person.
During the Lunar Landing competition, students will use everything from paper plates to duct tape, cotton balls, foam and other household items to build a structure that would best protect a tomato during a drop from a helium-filled balloon floating about 100 feet in the air. Students will have 25 minutes to build their contraption and the lift/dropping of tomatoes will last 15 minutes. The purpose of this contest is to see which team can best protect its tomato from becoming ketchup once it lands.
The drive behind Engineers Week is to call attention to the challenges that our world faces that need immediate engineering solutions. Tackling these challenges will require an engineering workforce that is as diverse as the human population at large. Attracting young people to engineering is one way to promote a diverse engineering workforce. Jacobs School undergrads are trying to do exactly that through an ENSPIRE event on Wednesday, February 18. ENSPIRE is a student-run outreach event designed to introduce middle school students to university-led engineering. During this event, nearly 400 students will be shown around labs at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, and will take part in hands-on projects. The students will also participate and compete in a design competition inside the Price Center Ballroom.
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| At Research Expo, industry leaders will get a first-hand look at cutting research at the Jacobs School, as well as a chance to meet one-on-one with top engineering students. |
On Friday, 70 companies will be searching for future employees at DECaF, a student-run job fair held in the Price Center. The job fair gives company recruiters a chance to meet one-on-one with students in all engineering disciplines for full-time employment, as well as for internships and summer jobs.
Student engineers are also throwing an engineer’s ball called Impulse on Friday night. More information on E-Week activities at UC San Diego can be found here.
Media Contacts
Daniel Kane
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-3262
dbkane@ucsd.edu
Andrea Siedsma
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-0899
asiedsma@soe.ucsd.edu