Three weeks ago, we took you to UB where you saw engineering and architecture students build cranes out of macaroni. Three teams entered into the regional competition in Chetumal that took place last week along with almost 30 other Mexican teams. One of those teams brought home the second place medal.
The goal of the competition is to build the crane and test how much weight it can hold. And the coordinator of the engineering department said that one of the teams could have taken first place if it weren't for a technicality. He spoke to us via Zoom.
Lloyd Carrillo, Coordinator, Engineering Department, UB
"When the first team went up, the model took 12.812 kilograms. That is what that model took. The second team went up and got 9.812 kilograms. So both of them were extremely good. Other teams were basically below that, some of them you have the hook that goes on the crane, it barely holds on to that weight, it basically broke and fell and they were out. So we were there until other teams started to be beside the second team which was 9.812 kilogram."
"The 12.812 kilograms was still on top till when the third team step up on the game. The only thing with them is that this is the first time that we got disqualified in the actual testing. They were short by three centimeters at the back. We were discussing that and they said last minute they cut it because they wanted it to be more aesthetic and so forth and they forgot about the criteria. So 3 centimeters took us out of the competition but the model was tested and lo and behold they got 16.812 kilograms. No one else got close to them, they were the top one, basically it was the first place automatically. But as they say, we have to go with the criteria, we couldn't budge much."
"It is a great honor for me to do this every year especially knowing these guys are Associate Degree students participating against Bachelor Degree students."
"Next year is a year that Chetumal is having 25 years anniversary of the competition and the institution over there is turning 50 so they are asking us to do something a bit bigger to maybe bring on, we have Escolar Mexico from Corozal, they have an architecture program, I look forward to inviting them. Maybe St John's also since they have a civil engineering program, I will touching base with them so maybe UB now will be doing a national competition so we bring on more teams and Chetumal wants to have 50 total teams."
