Feb. 4, 2010
At Illinois Valley Community College the best cars taste good and have a short shelf life — at least for the fifth annual Edible Car Contest being held at noon Feb. 24.
Student teams are constructing cars, actually vehicles that look something like cars or trucks, entirely from food. Imagine a car body made from a cucumber or a hot dog and wheels from pinwheel pasta or cookies.
Dorene Perez, the program director of Computer Aided Design, explained that the contest highlights National Engineers Week.
“We want students to see that engineering is fun, that it allows them to be creative,” she said.
The contest also targets women by requiring at least one member of each team to be female.
“Engineering groups and the National Science Foundation are working to encourage more young women to enter engineering and other science and math-related fields,” Perez said.
On Feb. 24, the student teams will compete for prizes in a number of categories including design, creativity and speed. Some students will compete in special categories, such as nutritional value, which are related to areas they are studying, and student organizations are being encouraged to enter teams. Faculty and staff members are competing in a special category.
For the speed prizes, cars must be able to roll down a ramp approximately three feet long. The cars will be low tech, but the timing mechanisms will definitely be high tech.
Jim Gibson, the program director of Electronics, and electronics students will be using a programmable logic controller (PLC) to time the speed on the track. The control will be connected to a computer running Rockwell Automated software. The timing setup will utilize a reflective photo eye at the start and an emitter and receiver photo eye at the finish.
The contest, open to the public, will be in the cafeteria at IVCC. Entry blanks can be submitted through 11 a.m. on contest day; cars must be checked in also by 11 a.m. Most of the prizes will be in keeping with the edible theme such as chocolate filled trophy cups and Olympic-style medals made of chocolate.
Last year 90 students and seven members of the staff competed on 23 teams with vehicles named Squashinator and Heart Attack.
In the speed competition, the wheels fell off of the Magic School Bus at the start of the race track, but that entry emerged as the top winner by taking a first place in three other categories. The First Place in Speed was a slim and trim entry entitled the Noodle Wagon.
The contest is sponsored by the Division of Career and Technical Programs and the Making Industry Meaningful In College (MIMIC) project. For the first three years, the contest was supported by a National Science Foundation grant.
Perez explained that the contest is designed to provide students with an opportunity to experience the practical applications of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in an exciting team exercise.
“Designing a car from food requires students to use math and science in a creative framework,” said Perez.
Assisting Perez and Gibson with the contest are engineering design and electronics students who are members of the IVCC Leadership Team for technical students; Sue Caley Opsal, anatomy and physiology instructor; and Rose Marie Lynch, communications instructor.
Opsal and Lynch are working with Perez and Gibson on a second NSF grant designed to increase the number of people who prepare for engineering and engineering technology careers.
Contest entry blanks, contest rules and photos of past winners are available at www.ivcc.edu/nsf, and more information is available from Perez at 815-224-0221.