Egg Drop

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Welcome to the Tau Beta Pi Egg Drop! For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Egg Drop is an engineering design challenge open to all Stanford students. The aim is deceptively simple – you need to design a device to protect a raw egg from cracking after a five-storey drop.

Winners will be determined by the scoring formula explained below. The three highest scoring entries will be awarded a prize. There is an additional prize for the design that shows the highest degree of creativity. Come exhibit your creativity and design skills during an afternoon that promises to be awesome! (Come on, you know you’ve always wanted to throw eggs of a building!)

Logistics

What?

When?

Where?

Why?

All prizes will be split equally between all members of a team.

Eligibility and Restriction

• All Stanford students are eligible for participation
• Graduate students must enter with at least one undergraduate
• There is no restriction on team size. You can enter alone if you want. Also remember that prize money will be split equally between team members
• Each time can register one device
• Members and candidates for Tau Beta Pi are encouraged to enter but are not eligible for monetary prizes (slaps on the back will be awarded)
• One member from each team must email their team name and device name to arjun85@stanford.edu by midnight, Thursday 15th May.

Scoring

There are five scoring criterion as explained below:

Integrity (1000 points)

Does the egg stay intact?
• Fully intact – 1000 points
• Minor surface damage – 500 points
• Broken – 0 points

Weight (200 points)

As design is an important element, we want you to reduce the weight of your design as much as possible. The lightest design will receive full points, the heaviest zero and all the rest in between using the following equation:

Weight score = 200 – 200/(N-1) * (Ranking – 1), where N is the number of contestants and N is the rank of the device in terms of weight, with the lightest device being 1 and the heaviest N

Accuracy (200 points)

A target will be placed on the ground and you must aim your device such that it lands as close to the target as possible. As with the weight score, the most accurate drop will receive full points and the least accurate zero.

Accuracy score = 200 - 200/(N-1) * (Ranking – 1), where N is the number of contestants and N is the rank of the team in terms of accuracy with the most accurate team being 1 and the least accurate N.

Time (100 points)

This is more of a bonus. If you can get your device to fall in 7 seconds or less, you will get the full 100 points, otherwise you will receive 0.

Creativity (250 points)

This one is completely up to the subjective views of the judges. A panel of judges will award points for each entry on a scale from 1 to 10 and the average score will be multiplied by 25. This score will also be used to decide the winners of the Most Creative category.

Rules – Eggs and Devices

1. Materials you can use any materials as long as they don’t involve a motor and/or electronics.
2. Size – The only size constraint is that the entry must fit within a 2 ft by 2 ft by 2 ft cube before it is dropped, and up until the moment it is released. Once the device is released it may expand to any size
3. All devices must hold one and only one egg.
4. Eggs will be provided by Tau Beta Pi at the event. No pre-loaded devices will be accepted.
5. Once the device has been submitted for weighing, no changes will be allowed to it.
6. All devices must be safe, as determined by the judges. There should be no danger to spectators, the pavement, the building or anything else in the vicinity. For example, they can’t be heavy enough to harm spectators.
7. NEW RULE! The device cannot attach to the building in any way. It must fall independently.

Disqualification

1. Any violation of the rules above will lead to disqualification.
2. In particular, teams that the judges feel have violated safety considerations and/or the spirit of the competition will be disqualified
3. Any team whose device hits the walls during the fall will be disqualified.

Other Information

1. DO NOT use Terman building for testing your devices – the even was almost canceled four years ago because of the mess testing teams left behind.
2. Tau Beta Pi reserves the right to modify the rules at any time
3. Please bring your friends to the competition – The more spectators there are the more awesome it’s going to be!