1st Annual Imagineering Competition

The annual Imagineering Competition is designed to reinforce the ideals of creating the Societal Engineer by giving students the opportunity to express their creative and entrepreneurial capabilities on ideas that impact people and society.

The competition, sponsored by John Maccarone (ENG’66), provides a framework for engineering undergraduates, individually or as a team, to create and enter an original project. Students may use the resources of the Singh Imagineering Lab to develop their prototypes.

The first prize winner receives $2,500, as well as an invitation to serve on the Competition Committee the following year; second prize is $1,500 and third prize is $1,000. All winners also receive assistance with patent submission and a marketing analysis consultation.

The winner of the $2,500 first prize for the inaugural Imagineering Competition held in 2012 was David Harris (ME’15), who designed, built and tested a prototype of a sounding rocket that could be used to take measurements and perform scientific experiments in suborbital flight. The 12-foot, 70-pound, two-stage rocket is intended to launch small payloads for $1,400—a pittance compared to NASA’s $1 million price tag for hitching a ride on a larger-scale sounding rocket, or the $200,000 required by the cheapest commercial alternative. To cut costs, Harris is developing the rocket largely from commercial, off-the-shelf components – learn more about David’s project here.

The next Imagineering Competition will be announced in the spring of 2013.