Ideas for a fun mini-design competition (for an ASME meeting)

[ehilge]

Hey all, I'm looking for a short and fun mini design build competition for a university ASME meeting coming up. I think everyone has been a part of something like this before. For example, I did an egg drop once. We were given about 30 mins, tape, and bendy straws and had to come up with an egg drop vehicle. But I'd like something less messy than that. I tried to google up some ideas but was drawing a blank. Is there a website somewhere that has a list of ideas or do you have any that are particularly interesting?
Thanks

 

[ShraZam]

Well there is this one game that we did back in my school. We had students put into groups. Every group was given some masking tape, plastic straws, paper and a ping pong ball. The objective of the game was to design a roller coaster that would cause the ball to reach the ground in the longest time possible. Of course to make things fair, everyone was given the same amount of each tool to help them create the roller coaster. It really made us think and it was fun in all. I hope this helps!

 

[brainpushups]

Another common activity which, requires few materials, and allows for creativity and teamwork is the 'tower challenge' of which there are several variations including the 'marshmallow challenge' for which you can find a TED Talk about with a quick google search.

Ha. Just noticed the OP posted back in 2011!