Join students, faculty, staff and alumni for a Water Balloon Drop competition! Anyone is eligible to enter.

The objective is to design a device that will protect a water balloon from breaking when it is dropped from the second-floor balcony of the Foundation building; balloons will be provided at the event. Contestants will compete to design a device with the lightest weight, the fewest number of parts, and the most accurate landing on the Drop Zone target. 

Water Balloon Drop Competition
Friday, September 27, 3pm
Outside the Foundation Building

Confirmed Judges:
Malcolm King, Interim President
Terri Coppersmith, VP of Alumni Affairs and Development
Mokena Makeka, Special Adviser to the VP of Academic Affairs
David Wootton, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Gift cards will be awarded for Most Innovative Design ($50), Most Eco-Friendly Design ($50), Most Accurate ($50), and an Overall Winner ($100).

Sponsored by the Office of Alumni Affairs and Development and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE HERE

RULES

• The object of the competition is to design a device that will protect a water balloon from breaking when it is dropped from a height of approximately 22 feet; balloons will be provided at the event. Entrants will compete to design a device with the lightest weight, the fewest number of parts, and the most accurate landing on the Drop Zone target (see equation at the end of the rules.)
• All scores will be determined using the Balloon Drop Competition Official Rules equations. The goal of the balloon drop competition is to obtain the lowest non-zero score. Any balloon drop that results in the balloon breaking receives a score of zero. All devices will be dropped from the same height. In the event of a tie in any of the categories or competition rounds, the tying entrants will continue to have their devices dropped until one device achieves a clearly winning score.
• Teams can be made up of two people.
• Water balloons will be provided on the day of the competition to each contestant, filled with approximately 100mL of water, and are the only balloons allowed for use. Contestants shall provide all other materials.
• After the drop, the judge will remove the device from the target and the contestant, or their designee, will remove the balloon from the device for inspection by the judge. No repairs to the devices will be allowed between drops.
• The entire device will be released at the drop plane (even with the top of the railing). It cannot contact anything on the ground, a person, or a structure (for example, a long slide may not be used to transport the balloon from the balcony to the ground.) Participants will drop their own devices. If they are unable to reach over the railing, they may appoint someone else to drop the device for them.
• After check-in, each device entered will be weighed with the balloon provided to each contestant. The lowest weight for a device will be zero (no negative values will be allowed.) No changes or modifications to the device will be allowed once it has been weighed with the balloon. Once the device has successfully landed without breaking the balloon, the balloon will be removed and weighed; its weight will be subtracted to determine the weight of the device only, which will be used in the formula.
• For the Grand Prize competition, the number of parts used for each device will be counted. Each individual piece will count as one part. For example, if the balloon is cradled in 100 Styrofoam peanuts glued together the device will have 101 parts (100 parts peanuts and 1 part glue.) Gasses, other than air, will be considered one part.
• The drop zone will be a target comprised of concentric rings. Landing the device entirely within the innermost one-foot diameter ring will be one point, within the second ring will be two points, and so on. Landing outside all of the rings will be twelve points. The device will receive points based on the outermost ring in which any part of the device lands.

Scores will be calculated using the following formula. If the water balloon breaks, your score is zero. The lowest non-zero score wins: For the initial round, the formula is:

BIF=Balloon Integrity Factor (1 or ), M=mass in grams (minus balloon), DZ=distance from target in inches, Lmax=Largest Dimension, Irank=Innovation Rank, W=Waste Scote (0=no waste, max=10) 

• The prizes for each category, awarded the day of the competition, are:
  • Overall Grand Prize: $100 gift card
    Most Accurate: $50 gift card
    Most Eco-Friendly: $50 gift card
    Most Innovative Design: $50 gift card
• You must be present at the end of the competition to win.
• A panel of judges will determine if each entrant follows all competition rules, and their decisions are final.