Powered only by a mousetrap in the center of a 15-by-15 inch body, "Slick Vic"-named after the electronic mous-trap company Victor-was one of several cars on show in the Marketplace lobby Wednesday.
Created by freshmen Tim Burns and Carson Moore for an Engineering 20 design project, Slick Vic's Marketplace demonstration is just one of the many events planned for Duke's first Engineers Week, which began Monday.
The week, which is open to students and faculty from both the Pratt School of Engineering and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, is sponsored by Pratt with support from Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Walsh Construction, Stryker Corp., Bovis Lend Lease, Skanska and Lexmark.
The week kicked off Monday with a clothing drive for Durham Rescue Mission, which will last all week. Other events planned include a speech on "Marketing Yourself" by IBM's Denny Pichardo Tuesday night, free doughnuts Thursday morning, a robotics mentoring social Thursday night and an E-Social Friday, featuring engineering-based competitions and free T-shirts that say "Team Trinity" or "Team Pratt."
"Friday is the big event that everyone's pretty excited about, including myself," said Lupita Temiquel-McMillian, Pratt student services coordinator.
Temiquel-McMillian said the events will be fun and high-energy, but also serve to highlight what engineers do.
For instance, a peanut-shelling contest during the E-Social Friday will demonstrate the difference in output generated from engineers developing peanut-shelling machines in Africa to replace the traditional method of shelling by hand, she said.
Sophomore Aidan Burke, who brought the idea of Engineers Week to Duke after learning about activities at other universities, said turnout will be the biggest challenge.
"This is the first time in recent history that we've tried to put on a big show for Engineers Week," he said. "I think it's going to take a few years for it to catch on and for it to be comparable to other schools' Engineers Week."
Patrick Ye, Engineering Student Government freshman class president, said that he has been encouraging both Trinity and Pratt students to attend events and added that hopefully the lure of free T-shirts will increase the freshman turnout at Friday's E-Social.
"Ideally, Engineers Week is a time for non-engineers to learn more about what engineers do," he said.
As to why there is an Engineering Week and not a week for Trinity students? Ye has at least one theory.
"Because Pratt's cooler than Trinity," he explained. "Clearly."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.