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Subject : Re: LUG: Fwd: Greatest Engineer Challenge Submission Form

From : Alexander Ray <alexjray.ncsu@gmail.[redacted]>

Date : Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:15:53 -0400

Parent


Alright, I'll just post it here.

My apologies for the looong email.

Engineer's Symphony:

The challenge is to create an short musical work through a combination of student-operated and automated instruments.
Students have all week to scavenge for parts, assemble and practice their instruments, culminating in a short performance at the end of the week.

This is a challenge to very fundamental engineering skills.  Students need to manage time effectively to be done within the one-week timeframe.  They will need to do research into existing designs to plan what they will try to make.  They need to efficiently seek out and gather resources needed.  They need to design and build the instruments sturdy enough to withstand practice, and re-evaluate designs that dont work.  They need to compose a short work to perform that shows off their particular instruments and members.  They need to organize within themselves to have time to practice with each other.  Finally, they need to be able to get up in front of a crowd of their peers to demonstrate and perform their instruments.

Some basic materials may be provided (cardboard, electric conduit, string, duct tape, 2x4s), but many students will be driven to seek out their own components.  Nearly anything concievable can be converted into a number of musical instruments, so they are limited by their own imagination.

Starting resources are provided, but participants are highly encourged to seek outside the box, and find something new and different.
http://www.stomponline.com/ - STOMP, a music performing group that excels at using ordinary objects as instruments
http://www.sciencenc.com/Tournament_information/Event_rules_nc/sounds_of_music.cfm - SOUNDS OF MUSIC, used to be a science olympiad event similar to this, and there exists a large record of past instrument designs for this competition.  This may be the best place to search for instrument designs

Some starting ideas:
Textile Engineers constructing a tensioned-yarn array on a sturdy where each 'string' is tuned and the instrument plays much like a small harp.
Electrical Engineers gathering small microcontrollers and programming them to control small servomotors that beat drums in time with each other (combining separate rhythms to make composite rhythms).
Chemical Engineers taking a HUGE bucket of water and holding electrical conduit (metal pipes) in the water and striking the pipe with a mallet.  The pitch the pipe can be changed by inserting it and removing it from the water (with gradual marks for different notes).  PVC also works well (completely different sound though).
Computer Scientists using a simple Genetic Algorithm (or a Markov Chain) with a set of interesting costing functions to take ambient sound (microphone hooked up to a computer) and creates an evolving musical piece on the spot.

Presentation:
5 minutes to present the instruments (their players) and how they were created and/or the math/physics behind how they work
5 minutes to perform

Judging/Scoring:
Presentation: (45 pts)
20 pts - Effort in Creation (How difficult was it to make the instruments)
15 pts - Presentation Material (Did they cover what they needed to adequately to present and explain the instruments)
10 pts - Presentation Quality (Did they present well)
Performance: (55 pts)
Performance Quality - 30 pts (Was the performance enjoyable)
Synchronization - 15 pts (Were the performers together or did it seem like each was doing their own performance)
Vocabulary - 10 pts (How difficult was the performance piece, regardless of instruments)

Additional Comments:
This is a challenge to create and perform created instruments, so students are discouraged from using 'actual' musical instruments.  Though they could arguably be used to accompany a group's performance, overuse will result in a low score (for circumventing the whole point of the challenge in the first place).