Seniors Andrew Gravunder, Rachel McCoy , and Andrew Hoffmaster
Dropping his egg from the second floor of the Edward J. Pryzbyla University Center, senior biomedical engineering major Andrew Gravunder watched it carom off a wall and hit the floor with a thud.
The Piqua, Ohio, native says he wondered whether the five white 8.5-x-11 inch pieces of paper attached to the egg with Scotch tape had slowed its velocity sufficiently. He got his answer from Patrick Noonan, a senior biomedical engineering major from Annapolis, Md. who walked over to the object, unwrapped it, and inspected its condition.
"It didn't break," Noonan announced to Gravunder and other students at the lunchtime event last week.
Gravunder's success in the Egg Drop Contest was emblematic of CUA's Engineering Week, according to Binh Q. Tran, assistant dean in the engineering school and chair of the biomedical engineering department. "The whole week was very successful," said Tran. "More than 400 students participated. Engineering Week really allows the rest of campus to know what engineers do, and it's good for students to celebrate all of their hard work with their peers."
The week featured a series of events sponsored by engineering school students that culminated on Saturday, Feb. 5, with the Engineering Ball. The events included an acoustic demonstration of shattering wine glasses, a contest to see how many stories candy Mentos dropped in a soda bottle can shoot up in the air, and a marshmallow-and-toothpick bridge design.
Senior Patrick Noonan
The 12th Annual Engineering Ball was sold out with a record crowd, according to Tran. Alumnus David Muirhead, who earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering in 1982, gave a talk Feb. 3 to faculty, staff, and students in which he described his work and engineering opportunities abroad in the Middle East. Muirhead is project director at Morganti Group Inc., an international construction management firm based in Danbury, Conn.
Student societies played major roles in organizing the events. The Biomedical Engineering Society sponsored the Egg Drop Contest; the Society of Women Engineers sponsored the Engineering Ball; and the American Society of Civil Engineers sponsored the marshmallow-and-toothpick bridge design.
