National Engineers Week celebrated at Rice

The George R. Brown School of Engineering celebrated National Engineers Week in February, reaching out to current and future generations of engineering talent with such activities as a “Battle of the Brains” quiz bowl, an engineering competition and networking opportunities.

A team from the Department of Statistics won the “Battle of the Brains” quiz bowl, rolling over teams from the other seven departments in the school. The Statistics team included faculty members Jim Thompson and Dennis Cox, and two graduate students, Darrin Gershman and Jonathan Lane. The contest opened with elimination rounds in which contestants answered questions from a range of general knowledge topics. Facing off against the Department of Statistics in the final round was a team from Bioengineering made up of graduate student Jim Kretlow and three undergraduates: Steve Xu, Sean Sessel and Larissa Charnsangavej.

On Tuesday, the annual luncheon sponsored by the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, honored outstanding juniors and seniors from Rice, the University of Houston and Prairie View A&M University. The TSPE promotes professional engineering in Texas.

Also on Tuesday, Engineering Majors Day was held at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. Scores of freshman and sophomore engineering students who had not chosen a major heard from faculty and representatives from the school’s various disciplines.

On Wednesday, the annual engineering competition was held in Rice Memorial Center’s Grand Hall. Some 39 teams of three to four students each worked using a bag of office supplies (pencils, paper, rulers, binder clips, etc.) to construct a “ski jump” that would propel a pencil a designated distance, said Nancy Tucker, event organizer. Competitors whose pencils fell short or went beyond the desired distance had points subtracted. The pencil closest to the optimum distance gained the most points. A $300 cash prize was awarded to the first place team, $200 to the second place team, and $100 to the third place team. The Rice Global Forum for Engineering and Construction and Fluor Corporation sponsored the event.

Also during the week, Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, gave a lecture to mark her election to the National Academy of Engineering. The lecture was followed by a reception in Richards-Kortum’s honor.

The Rice Engineering Alumni also participated in the week’s activities, sponsoring an ice cream study break for all engineering students at the Design Kitchen. The event allowed undergraduates to show off their design projects and to meet Rice engineering alumni. It also gave the alumni a close-up look at the new facility.

National Engineers Week is an annual program of the National Engineers Week Foundation.

Dwight Daniels, Engineering Communications