The 2012 Tulsa Engineering Challenge will be April 13, 2012 at the Tulsa Tech Riverside Campus.  Rules are posted under 2012 Events and Rules.

2011 REPORT:

The 2011 Tulsa Engineering Challenger (TECh) was a huge success.  Held Friday, April 1, 2011 over 800 students were participating in one or more or the fourteen competitions at the Riverside Campus of Tulsa Technology Center.  The event provided a forum to test Tulsa area youths’ math, science and engineering skills in a fun, hands-on learning environment, and was geared towards students from grades 4 through 12.

This was TECh’s twenty third year!   It started at Expo Center many years ago with just a few events.  One of the keys is the support of the engineering societies.  Each society runs an event and covers the cost of the awards when possible.  The past several years, corporate support has been especially helpful.  Hilti, Inc., AEP/PSO and Flight Safety supplied judges for three favorite events.   And Spirit AeroSystem provided a significant grant this year as well as the Anne & Henry Zarrow Family Foundation. Chriss Chavez, doctoral student in Engineering Communications at OU- Tulsa, was chairman.  Chriss says, “The teachers are the heroes of this event.  They are encouraging their students to step up and explore the fun of designing and building some great devices. It amazes me of the creativity and enthusiasm of the students and their teachers.”  Total prize money awarded was $ to 117 teams & individuals.

A special thanks to the following organizations and judges.

The Toothpick Bridge by ASCE with Allen Bates as primary judge.

The Chemical Switch AIChE with Laura Ford and Christi Luks as judges.

The Rubber Band Powered Vehicle by ASME with Jon Liechti  and Tom Broge as primary judges.  This is a very popular event. They added a second lane for the judging this year to handle the number of entries.

The Electric Motor by IEEE with Joe Vitali and Allen Williams as judges.

The Robot by SWE with Oscar Vera and  Thomas Kuruvilla, Flight Safety, as judges.

The Ping-Pong Ball Launcher by SAME with Chriss Strunk as primary judge and a team of very dedicated volunteers.

The Paper Plane Duration and Distance Competitions by Hilti, Inc with Tom Haanen as primary judge.    Over 150 students registered for these two events.

The Wacky Wonder Works by OSPE with Stacy Loeffler as judge with several trusted volunteers.

The Aluminum Boat by OSPE.  Gaylon Pinc headed up a team of judges for thewalk-in entries.

The Extreme Engineering Challenge carried through the 2011 theme of “Stop! Think Safety! Act Safely. TECh focuses on a Safe Today and an even Safer Tomorrow”. It was sponsored by AEP/PSO with Cayti Burch heading up a great team of volunteers.

The Mini-Math Competition by SME with Dr. Ram Mohan managing the event. Over 450 students took the ten-question test.

The Academic Olympiad, added new last year, is a very popular event.   ASCE stepped up to handle the judging of this event with almost 190 entries.

The Digital Poster Competition, also added last year, and sponsored by OU-Tulsa, was judged by Chriss Chavez and Meg Broge. The theme was “Stop! Think Safety! Act Safely. TECh focuses on a Safe Today and an even Safer Tomorrow.”

During the day, a Chemistry Show was offered periodically.  It was sponsored by SWE and TU with Suzanne Dodson and Abigail Wade demonstrating experiments that get the students involved in engineering principles.

The TECh planning committee looks forward to the 2012 event as they seek to expand the number of participating schools from 30 to at least 40.