By ANDREW VELARDE/Staff Writer
On. Oct. 22, 400 students from engineering majors participated in the first Delek US Ratliff Relay. In this Olympic-style event which showcased their various majors, students competed in a catapult contest, a robotics competition, a cardboard canoe race and an extreme water treatment test.
Students had the chance to connect and network with companies and sponsors. Delek US — the title sponsor — presented a $25,000 gift to the College of Engineering.
“It is essential that students take on a challenge and complete a complicated task because that’s what you will be asked to do for the rest of your life,” UT Tyler President Kirk Calhoun said. “What I love about this event is that students take on complicated tasks and they demonstrate they can master that task and produce a product.”
“These relays are an excellent way for our students to learn and grow through different obstacles and challenges,” said Michael McGinnis, Chair of Civil Engineering and Construction Management. “These are some of the moments that will stick with our students throughout the rest of their life.”
The catapult contest was split into two parts. The first was a look at the design of the catapult as well as a poster covering its goals. The second was a test of accuracy and distance.
“I loved this event with all the obstacles and challenges my team had to go through,” freshman Chris Tate said. “While we didn’t win, I had a fun time seeing my catapult ‘Stud’ in action, and I’m ready to compete again next year.”
The extreme water treatment test consisted of students using their own filtration design to filter water from Harvey Lake.
“While the water test isn’t the most flashy event, it shows a more real-world task that we got to compete in,” freshman Nate Seamore said. “It was a cool process seeing our filter work with the limited material we had.”
The robotics competition had students designing a dune buggy to follow a specific path.
For the cardboard canoe race, several teams of three each built a canoe and a paddle out of cardboard and duct tape. Students’ goal was to get across a short section of the lake and come back as fast as possible.
“This [cardboard canoe] competition was a blast even though we got soaked in the end,” sophomore Jacob Neems said. “We enjoyed how, through all obstacles, we could gather as a team to get a boat that could float.”
“We had a great time today, and won third place for the cardboard canoe display,” student Karen Rivera said. “We had a lot of fun getting to know our team and build that chemistry together as a team.”
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