Category: Meetings

UD’s ASME chapter held a Pi Day Celebration to commemorate a number engineers know very well, . Originally the event was to be held on March 14^th in homage to the number 3.14, but it had to be rescheduled to March 21^st due to snow. Approximately 40 people came out to eat some pies and to program a Raspberry Pi circuit board. This was our biggest turnout for Pi Day to date! We started off the festivities around 8 PM in Spencer Lab, where we had two separate events taking place, concurrently.

The first event was learning how to program a Raspberry Pi, a credit card sized mini computer that is widely used in electronics. This information session provided those who were interested with the ability to gain hands on experience with the board and watch it in action. Students were able to use this information and apply it to various engineering disciplines. The programming aspect was a smash hit; everyone learned something new and had a great time

The other Pi Day event was the actual creation and ingestion of pies! Participants could choose to bake two pies: Apple and Raspberry. Students were provided instructions, ingredients, and fun facts about the number pi. Groups then worked together to make large batches of pie (about 8 servings worth). Each pie only took 8 minutes to cook in the microwave! Overall, the total time to make and bake each pie only took around 20 minutes and the pie was eaten even faster than that!  This allowed for mechanical engineers to take a quick study break to enjoy some pi, learn how to program a Raspberry Pi, and socialize with other students of various grades in the major! Pi Day was a great way to celebrate a historic number, and an even more historically delicious dessert.

Make sure to come back next year for Pi Day 2018!

 Article written by Cade Gertsen

In the same competitive spirit, several people came out and stayed to tinker at the inaugural ASME mini Build-A-Thon. This year’s activity was building a rubber band powered vehicle out of K’nex, Legos, and rubber bands. Needless to say, there was a significant variety of designs prototyped, all with intriguing design choices.

At the starting line, the goal was simple: make your vehicle go the farthest. When the cars were released, a clear winner emerged from the fray, with one vehicle going nearly the full length of Spencer 133b. Congratulations to Francis Klincewicz on your win!

Everyone who came out certainly enjoyed themselves, and was quite content with their resulting vehicle after the hour-long build period allotted.

Still many others merely came out to take advantage of the plenty of free food served at this event. Thank you to everyone who came out, and also a special thanks to the College of Engineering for allowing us to borrow the K’nex & Legos!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the annual ASME Kickoff Picnic this year, in spite of the heat. Those that came for the food didn’t leave hungry, and those who came to chat got to reunite with the alumni & professional engineers who came as well. Many thanks to the ASME Delaware Professional Chapter for sponsoring this event.