Engineering Competition

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Engineering Competition 

   On Saturday 2 August, I had fun at school. Yes, that's right, 'fun' and 'school' in the same sentence. I was at school for an engineering competition put on by the University of Auckland. The competition started at 9:00am when the question, "If Mount Taranaki erupted, how much would it cost the aviation industry?" was released. The latest your entry could be submitted was at 6:00pm.
   My friends and I (everyone worked in groups of 3-4 people) worked hard for 9 hours writing a report that would answer the question. We had a great day as we were working in a fun environment and we could talk to each other and share ideas as we worked.
   Why on earth would you choose to spend one Saturday cooped up at school working hard out?
I forgot to mention that the team that came first would win $6,000. Also you get to hang out with your team for the whole day and do crazy things like order in pizza. It was kind of expensive, but after seven hours of hard work it was great to have a Meatlovers pizza covered in BBQ and Aioli sauce.
   My team and I learned a lot as we all added our own idea to the report. I worked from an Accountant's point of view and did most of the financial elements of the report. One friend (a math genius) did most of the numbers for us and used his great integration skills to discover the overall cost to the aviation industry from a model he designed. My next friend (a statistician) organized the report and gave it a professional structure and look. My last friend (a scientist) added the science part of the report about how volcanoes erupted. All in all our report was a bit of a mess and we were not very likely to win. But we had fun!

   Head over to Auckland University's Facebook page to see some photos and stay updated for next year's competition:
https://www.facebook.com/engsci

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