Robots will rescue flood-stranded eggs, machines will play Frisbee golf and cougars will be catapulted across the ballroom at Mechanical Engineering Research Day today in the Union Ballroom.
Robots built by mechanical engineering students will rescue eggs stranded by a “hurr-EGG-cane” and transport them to egg-sized hospital beds.
Junior high school students from local schools will compete in a trebuchet competition, in which they build their own trebuchets (catapult-like devices) and launch stuffed BYU cougars across the ballroom.
Mechanical engineering students will also be presenting their capstone research projects.
“Mechanical engineers design and develop most of the systems and devices that each of us use and interact with daily,” said Melanie Gladding, public relations associate for mechanical engineering.
“U students outside the (mechanical engineering) discipline will be amazed that such work is happening on campus and gain a deeper understanding of how affected we are by (mechanical engineering),” she said.
“It is something different that doesn’t happen every day,” said Austin Welborn, a junior in mechanical engineering.
Stacy Bamberg, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, encouraged the public to come see the students’ work.
“It is a great opportunity for the public to see the exciting innovations by undergraduate students,” she said. “The students in mechanical engineering have been working hard all semester and would love to have a big crowd cheering for them.”
Ryan Perkins