Contact: Maridith Geuder
It's no yolk that a group of Mississippi State University engineering students are among less than a dozen competitors in a national egg-drop competition.
An upper-level chemical engineering class taught by Clifford George is one of 10 teams in the country selected on the basis of written proposals to be part of Energy Challenge '98.
Each team earns $2,000 and will spend the next year perfecting their designs for the first such contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Georgia Institute of Technology's Institute of Paper Science and Technology.
The 30 students in George's pulp and paper manufacturing technology class must design a paper package that, when filled with water, will protect a raw egg dropped 20 feet onto a solid surface.
The winning entry will earn a $15,000 prize.
The September 1998 competition requires students to use only chemical wood pulp, secondary wood cellulose and paper chemicals in constructing the cubical container. In addition to not leaking after impact, the container must meet several other requirements.
"The contest supports DOE's initiative to promote energy efficiency and waste minimization concepts in undergraduate education," said George.
In addition to Mississippi State and Georgia Tech, the contest includes teams from Clarkson University in New York, Miami University of Ohio, North Carolina State University, San Diego State University, San Jose State University, University of Maine, University of Colorado at Denver, and Western Michigan University.