Each November, the Herff College of Engineering hosts a day-long event for middle and high school students to engage in lab tours/demonstrations, hear presentations on career opportunities, and compete in a variety of team-based engineering competitions hosted by each of the engineering departments.  Approximately 1,000 students participate each year. Competitions include:

• Cardboard Beam Contest—Which team can develop the strongest cardboard beam as measured by the strength-to-weight ratio (SWR)?
• Wind Power Contest—Which team can generate the most power by converting wind energy to electrical energy?
• Bristlebots Contest—Which team can design and build a simple robot our of a bristled end from a toothbrush, a vibrating motor, and a battery that will a) best travel in a straight path or b) exhibit the highest towing power?
• Programming Contest—Which team can complete the most programming problems in 1 hour?
• Rocket Modeling Contest—Which team’s design will achieve the highest altitude?
• Kicker Contest—Which team can design an ‘artificial leg’ that will kick a standard ping-pong ball into a target with the highest degree of accuracy?
• Wall Contest—Which team can achieve the highest participant weight to duct tape mass ratio through a design that fully supports a team member to sit in a chair taped to a wall to be completely off the ground for a minimum of three minutes?
• Boat Contest—Which team can design a boat that will cover 6 feet of water in a fixed container in the shortest amount of time? 
• K’NEX Structure Contest—Which team can design a bridge with the best structural performance as measured by build time and structure mass?
• Transportation Contest—Which team can design, build, and race a K-NEX constructed vehicle that will achieve the highest profits by delivering payload to designated destinations with the fewest stops for repairs and ‘fuel’?