The “infamous” WP Upper Midwest Engineering Design Competition was held this Fall and the event once again lived up to its expectations. There was drama, excitement, and some ruthless competition surrounding the event. The objective of the competition was to create a machine from several pre-selected, somewhat random supplies, to move a round object with accuracy and distance (build a catapult to throw a ball). There were 9 teams in the competition with the top two teams finishing only one point apart from each other.
There were four launches making it past the 50 foot mark, but the longest distance recorded was 59 feet. That team that achieved the distance had poor accuracy, so they did not place. The winning team did not have the longest distance, but had the most accurate launches with two attempts making into the center of the target,. The team was made up of Jeremy Goodroad, David Dowling, Chuck Hauck, Duane Evert and Bob Thompson.
