Zombie tag, cardboard boat races and a Battle Royale of radio-controlled cars were just a few of the many events that comprise Engineers Week at Cal State Long Beach this year.
E-Week 2012 consists of several different events celebrating and recognizing engineering achievements, according to the event website.
The week began with the opening of a Zombies vs. Humans weeklong tag game, and continued with an egg drop and RC car triathlon on Monday.
A few zombies acted as judges for the RC Triathlon in the basketball courts by the Engineering 3 building.
Many engineering clubs and societies participated in the triathlon, entering a modified RC car into the three-part competition.
“It’s a fun way to make things and break them,” said Cynthia Lopez, President of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at CSULB.
Clubs that organized the event paid for the RC cars, said Elizabeth Sandoval, a chair of E-Week 2012. She said the clubs paid around $70 for each car, but charged competition participants only $20.
Participants also covered expenses of the modifications they made to their cars, some of which were so extreme that the RCs no longer resembled toy cars.
“We took off the plastic shell and made an aluminum shell to put on it,” said Chris Anderson, a student on the CSULB California Launch Vehicle Education Initiative (CALVEIN) team.
He said the team attached a drill motor to the top of their RC, which would spin sharpened, metal arms to attack competitors.
Anderson said the team spent all last week working on their RC in a lab on campus.
Participants competed in three different events of the triathlon, including an obstacle course race, a “King of the Hill” competition and a Battle Royale.
There were also three divisions of RC cars: lightweight, middleweight and heavyweight.
Zack Bales, a judge and member of the CSULB Society of Robotics and Computer Technology, said teams had to follow regulations set by the judges and those set by campus police.
“Certain things are okay, but no projectiles, no flames, no acids [are allowed],” Bales said. “Last week, we ran into a lot of problems.”
Bales also said knives were not allowed, forcing the CALVEIN team to dull the blades on the metal arms of their bot.
However, this didn’t hurt CALVEIN’s performance in the Battle Royale as one of the metal arms struck CSULB Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) bot many times.
“Come on! Somebody attack the Sexy Pony!” judge James Coolidge said during the battle.
In the end, CALVEIN’s and SAE’s bots each lost to the CSULB Veterans Network by more than 40 points.
Winning teams in each division won a $50 gift card to Amazon.com, Bales said.