Scholars' Lab Blog //1st Annual Makerspace Hackontest
Blog //1st Annual Makerspace Hackontest

The Scholars’ Lab staff and Makerspace Technologists completed the first ever annual/biannual/semesterly SLab Makerspace Hackontest. The brain-child of Shane Lin, this contest, in short, was to get SLab staff and Makerspace techs together to create something that would keep an egg from cracking; a spin on the traditional egg drop competitions you may have had in middle or high school.

What’s a Hackontest?

A hackontest is a contest where you hack together something. (clever, right?)

The Rules

We (I?) cordially invite you to participate in the 1st biannual (or possibly biennial) Makerspace Employee Hackathon (MEH)! This event is open to all Scholars’ Lab makerspace technologists and full-time employees.

As an arguably fun activity, each of you is challenged to complete a design and production challenge using tools and materials found in the makerspace.

For this inaugural event, the challenge is a spin on that staple of American primary education science classes: the egg drop. Design a mechanism to allow an American-standard Large size unboiled egg to survive two sequential drops from 2 meters onto a hard floor without cracking the egg. Our twist on this project is that in between the drops, the entire design must bear the compressive force of 1 metric Shane mass at Earth gravity applied sequentially on three perpendicular axes at the longest point (i.e. I must be able to stand on it).

If multiple designs allow an egg to survive both drops, the team with the design with the lowest pre-drop weight (in case fuel or reaction mass is expended in the course of the drop) will win the Grand Technical Prize and be temporarily presented with the prestigious SLabby Trophy.

After we perform the drops, participants will also vote on a Special Ingenuity Award for designs that incorporate exceptional trickery or superior aesthetics.

Teams will be announced by Monday 3/6 (so please fill out the form by the Sunday before) and have until Monday 3/27 to submit their design and model (we’ll figure out the best time to perform the drop after we assign teams).

Additional rules:

A. Each participant will be assigned by the organizers to a team to be decided in accordance with our secret agenda (chiefly, fraternization).

B. Use of personal computers are allowable, as is any freely-available and Lab-provided software, including 3D designs, but any part that touches the egg must be an original design.

C. You may incorporate any materials found in and of the Makerspace in your designs, with the following exceptions:

  1. No paper and paper-like materials, including cardboard and card stock.

  2. No liquid adhesives or hot glue (glue sticks are okay)

  3. No adhesive tape

  4. No bubble wrap

In the case of any questions or questionable edge-cases, please send me (Shane: ssl2ab@virginia.edu) an email and I will arbitrate. As a rule of thumb, I really like unorthodox ideas.

Good luck!

The Judge

Shane was the brains and the judge behind the contest.

The Competition

Three entries made it to the competition:

Team Bomb!

Team Urchin

Shane was just helping out. Team Urchin was Spyros and Duy

Team DragonSpawn

Team DragonSpawn: Lauren and Ammon

The Winner is…

Only one competitor survived all the tests: drop from 2 meters, the full weight of one metric Shane unit on three axis, and a second drop from 2 meters…

Team DragonSpawn!

Congratulations, you get the first SLabby award!

Cite this post: Ammon Shepherd. “1st Annual Makerspace Hackontest”. Published May 04, 2017. https://scholarslab.lib.virginia.edu/blog/1st-annual-makerspace-hackontest/. Accessed on .