Pitt to Host National Student Engineering Conference Conference features Rube Goldberg-type engineering competition

October 15, 2002

PITTSBURGH—More than 400 engineering students from across the country are expected to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Engineering Student Councils (NAESC) Oct. 17 to 20 at the Pittsburgh Sheraton Station Square Hotel and on the University of Pittsburgh's campus.

Pitt's School of Engineering is hosting the NAESC conference, which is held to vote on organizational government issues and present NAESC officers with ideas for running their schools' chapters. The conference also features a job fair, presentations from engineering firms, and special sessions on leadership and team-building.

The conference will include social events, including Enginuity, a competition only engineers—or Rube Goldberg—could love.

During Enginuity, teams of students receive a set of common materials, such as clothes pins and paper cups, with which to design an invention to perform a specific task. Participants are not told what the task is or what materials are being provided until the event begins, however. Judges will select the winners based on how successful, imaginative, and cost-effective each invention is.

"The NAESC conference fosters the relationship between the schools across the nation, and provides the students a chance to network with other students, future engineers, and business officials," says Waell Al-Akkas, a senior electrical engineering student who chairs Pitt's NAESC chapter.

The School of Engineering is the major sponsor for this year's event. Additional sponsors include NCEES, Mellon Financial Corp., Westinghouse Electric Co., Alcoa, Carnegie Mellon University, Ellwood Quality Steel Co., John Jurenko, Kiewit, National Security Agency, The Techs, and the U.S. Navy Officer Program.

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10/15/02/tmw