Students enrolled in the spring 2023 semester course ENG 1166: Foundations of Engineering recently participated in the “Marshmallow Challenge.” As part of this exercise in design, testing, teamwork, and time management, students pair off to build a self-supporting tower in just 18 minutes, using only uncooked spaghetti, masking tape, and dental floss. A marshmallow must be affixed at the top. Prizes are awarded to the team(s) with the highest stably mounted marshmallow, and separately for the most creative design(s).

“This was an in-class engineering design problem that required students to work in teams and come up with a few design iterations for the spaghetti tower,” explained Fayekah Assanah, assistant professor in residence of biomedical engineering, and one of the course instructors. 

ENGR 1166 consists of 400 first-year students from all engineering fields. Students are divided into two sections of 200 students in each lecture held inside the new Science 1 building’s active learning classroom. Donning a chef hat for fun, Bryan Huey, department head and professor of materials science and engineering, served as the competition’s judge. 

Additional photos of the event are below: