Last year, the students in Yale's introductory mechanical engineering class were instructed to design and build a machine that could gather the most "animals" for a Noah's Ark-themed competition. This year, the students in that class have been asked to continue this biblical frame of thought by adopting a Moses complex for a "Parting of the Red Sea" contest.
The public is invited to attend the competition, which will being held 7-9 p.m. on Monday, April 28, in Davies Auditorium, Becton Engineering and Applied Science Center, 15 Prospect St.
The competition will feature head-to-head bouts between the student-designed machines as they attempt to bring as many members of the "tribe" -- represented by two-inch styrofoam balls and a stuffed Yale Bulldog which is worth the most points -- through the "parted walls of water of the Red Sea" -- i.e., an opening at one end of the playing field. The object is to bring over the most tribe members, or to prevent your opponent from scoring,within the allotted time.
Audience members can expect to see a variety of strategies employed in this mission. Some of the machines are designed to "paddle" or "drive" tribe members across the field, some will blow them over using air pressure, and still others will fly them through the air via catapult.
Cotaught by Yale professor Robert Apfel and lecturer Nathan Delson, the introductory course is designed to acquaint students with the basics of mechanical engineering and to give them some practical, hands-on experience turning theory into practice. Most of the class members are freshmen or non-majors.