FS engineers take first place in Valley competition

By Brent VonCannon
The Collegian

Fresno State engineering students outwitted about 200 other students from colleges around the Central Valley to claim first place in the annual Central California Engineering Challenge on Nov. 4.

More than 250 engineering students converged at the South Gymnasium on Fresno State campus that morning as the Bulldogs, for the first time since the event’s inception nine years ago, claimed the trophy and sole possession of the title “BEST” (Brightest Engineering Student Team), at least for this year.

“We won by a large margin,” said Maria Sanchez, a Fresno State intro to mechanical engineering instructor and one of the organizers of the event. “They did great.”

The winning team, comprised of Uriel Tekunoff, Luke Clark, Ernest Amiri and Shawn Osier, had a score of 29 points, Sanchez said. The second place team, from the College of the Sequoias, came in at 16 points and third place was taken by Reedley College with 10 points.

Points are awarded based on successfully launching “footbags,” or hacky sacks, from an apparatus built by each team.

Each team, made up of three to five students, built an apparatus in which only purely mechanical means, such as springs, elastic bands or counterweights could be used to launch the footbags into a number of 13 buckets of various distances. The target buckets were arranged in a circle in between four platforms, where four competing teams fired away at the buckets at the same time. Fresno State students made up 23 of the 56 total teams, Sanchez said, all of whom are involved in introductory mechanical engineering courses.

Building the apparatus was a drawn-out process for most of the teams involved. “It took nearly five weeks from first designs to final product,” Tekunoff said. “Luke Clark did all the welding. Shawn Osier and myself collaborated with Luke to finalize the design. We spent three or four days testing the design.”

Sanchez explained how the point system is configured. “Let’s say five hacky sacks land in a particular target,” Sanchez said. “You get one point for each sack. Let’s say three hacky sacks went into another target. Two points are awarded for each of those sacks. Let’s say two hacky sacks went into a third target. Three points are awarded for each of those.”

In other words, more points are awarded for fewer footbags that make it into a particular target, thereby encouraging competitors to spread out the projectiles to various target buckets. Sanchez explained that students were rewarded based on capability in changing the trajectory of the launch. “They should be able to calibrate it,” Sanchez said.

A total of 10 footbags must be launched within a time frame of five minutes. The top 10 teams go on to a second round, where the winning team is determined. Prizes are given for first, second and third place, as well as for best engineering design.

One of the winners, Tekunoff, a transfer mechanical engineering major, said his team actually built and tested two designs before settling on the winning device.

“During one of our testing trials, my device broke, so I decided to focus my time on perfecting Luke’s rather than fixing mine,” Tekunoff said, referring to the designs proposed by Clark and himself. “His design was really accurate.”

Tekunoff said he was mostly involved with design of the platform and refining the design of the apparatus. “There were bugs that needed to be worked out,” Tekunoff said. “I was involved in that and assembling the launcher.”

The competition was Tekunoff’s first one, and he said he is looking forward to competing again next year. “As long as I’m with a team like this next year, I would assume that we will do well,” Tekunoff said.

The Central California Engineering Challenge is sponsored and paid for by the Gas Company, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Sempra Energy and the largest natural gas utility in the nation.

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