Engineering/Creative/Geeky Competitions?

Updated to include ideas from thread

Looking for a creative outlet. Post-college. Lets say it would be company supported. Options that come to mind immediately are:

• GRM Challenge (duh)
• Lemons/Chump/Etc.
• Rockets
• Land-speed (bonneville/ohio-mile)
• sparkfun autonomous vehicle (https://avc.sparkfun.com/)
• Pumpkin chucking
• Green grand prix (http://www.greengrandprix.com/)

All of these have some aspect of creative/engineery problem solving. What other competitions can you think of? Lets say a budget under $10k to reach/compete in the first event, team of say 3 - 10 people.

Any other suggestions? Car stuff is great, but open to other stuff as well.

There are all kinds of "hacking competitions" out there, but there's almost always going to be some software involved, or it might even be entirely software.

LeMons/Chump is as much a machining & fabrication competition as a driving competition. Teams with serious fab skills and equipment have a serious advantage.

Obviously there are lots of gains to be had through fab skills in the GRM challenge, but unlike the other two I don't think there are loopholes in the budget rules big enough to roll a personally-owned CNC mill through.

build chumpcar with disadvantaged youth.. like my buddy darren.

https://cydc.org/our-programs/bakker-career-center/

Hi ProDarwin,

How about you just look through old Junkyard Wars episode listing and find something you like.

Here’s something that just popped into my head that’s similar but original and yet quasi safe…lawnmower engine (or larger) powered, control line aircraft dog fights.

GameboyRMH wrote: There are all kinds of "hacking competitions" out there, but there's almost always going to be some software involved, or it might even be entirely software. LeMons/Chump is as much a machining & fabrication competition as a driving competition. Teams with serious fab skills and equipment have a serious advantage. Obviously there are lots of gains to be had through fab skills in the GRM challenge, but unlike the other two I don't think there are loopholes in the budget rules big enough to roll a personally-owned CNC mill through.

We would have "serious fab skills" on the team. I wouldn't like to simply overpower other teams with fab skills (if that's even possible), but come up with more unique solutions.

This group is 99% mechanical engineers & fab guys, but some software/hardware guys could be found if needed. Probably not interested in a Hacking competition though.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: build chumpcar with disadvantaged youth.. like my buddy darren. https://cydc.org/our-programs/bakker-career-center/

I like this idea.

RX Reven' wrote: Hi ProDarwin, How about you just look through old Junkyard Wars episode listing and find something you like. Here’s something that just popped into my head that’s similar but original and yet quasi safe…lawnmower engine (or larger) powered, control line aircraft dog fights.

Looking more for a sanctioned competition of some sort vs. random backyard fun (or is what you are suggesting a thing?)

There's not really a whole lot of competition, but there are records you can go after...

http://www.tripoli.org/

If you've got a group of guys, you'll need to work up through the certifications individually, but the results of group projects are almost always spectacular, success or failure.

A fair bit's dependent on whether there's an active group/range near by, but if you want engineering/geeky, it's all that and more.

In fact it's so engineering/geeky, my wife liked going with me for people watching entertainment-- "That man has never known a woman's touch, that man will never know a woman's touch," and so on.

What about robot fighting league?

Hmmm. Rockets are interesting. You bring up a point with records to go after. Land-speed could be interesting as well.

Robot fighting? Possibly. More interested in something that's Mechanical in nature. Most of us are mechanical engineers with a bit of electrical know-how. I feel like robot-fighting would be equal amounts of both?

Are there any (gasp!) competitions or challenges related to drones?

Have at it: http://lunar.xprize.org/

A little on the software / computer side, but SparkFun does their AVC (Autonomous Vehicle Competition) every year. There are separate ground based and airborne versions.

ProDarwin wrote: Are there any (*gasp!*) competitions or challenges related to drones?

Not competition, but someone needs to start getting video capable drones out to track days or an auto-x and see what can be done.

In reply to Karacticus:

Holy crap, that's GENIUS!

Fastest model plane for less than $100.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21x8vLaTbYs

These guys did 116mph with a plane made of foam board.

Bump. Any more?

Red Bull Flugtag?

Or perhaps a soapbox derby?

It occurs to me that if there is/were to be a sizable hill near the challenge, fun could be had...

Apexcarver wrote: Or perhaps a soapbox derby? It occurs to me that if there is/were to be a sizable hill near the challenge, fun could be had...

Dem driving skills

Good suggestions, especially Flugtag.

If you could get some software guys on the team, it would open up a lot more options though...

Is there anything like Baltimore's Kinetic Sculpture Race near you? People have a great time at it and there are definitely teams of co-workers that do it. http://www.kineticbaltimore.com/

Local Motors has a bunch of co-creation stuff you can explore: https://localmotors.com/explore/

Also, when I was growing up, I was involved in odyssey of the mind for many years and it was a GREAT experience. Maybe there's a local version you could get involved in? I bet coaching a team or helping with coach design/engineering for a few teams would be super rewarding and likely awesome networking.

Speaker building competition, InDIYana: https://sites.google.com/site/indiyanaevent/

I was thinking the human-powered helicopter, but looks like the prize was claimed 1.5 years ago.

http://vtol.org/awards-and-contests/human-powered-helicopter

There's always Baja cars/trucks/motorcycles?

or get your redneck on (some are NOT cheap):

• lawnmower pulls/racing
• mud bogging
• boat racing
• snowmobile lake racing
• bar stool racing
• various shooting/explosion sports

Apexcarver wrote: Red Bull Flugtag? Or perhaps a soapbox derby?

Soapbox derby is not a common event. I can't even seem to find the schedule for this. Do you have a link?

Flugtag is also a less common event. Is it honestly a competiton? It seems more comical/fun than anything. I'd prefer something with some sort of metric.

The Red Bull human-powered-dragster would be more my style, but I think they only did that once.

bluej wrote: Is there anything like Baltimore's Kinetic Sculpture Race near you? People have a great time at it and there are definitely teams of co-workers that do it. http://www.kineticbaltimore.com/ Local Motors has a bunch of co-creation stuff you can explore: https://localmotors.com/explore/ Also, when I was growing up, I was involved in odyssey of the mind for many years and it was a GREAT experience. Maybe there's a local version you could get involved in? I bet coaching a team or helping with coach design/engineering for a few teams would be super rewarding and likely awesome networking.

No competition like that... that I know of. Is it a serious competition, or more fun/games like Flugtag?

The local motors stuff confuses me. Some of that page seems like someones aborted engineering related pinterest page. Some seems like cool ideas. Are any competitions?

Odyseey of the mind seems fun... but here's the thing. I/my co workers want to compete. As adults. A lot of those kids competitions are great fun. Even college level stuff is (Baja, FSAE, etc.). But it seems like as an adult there is little interest in them - hence me asking for other ideas in this thread.

scardeal wrote: Speaker building competition, InDIYana: https://sites.google.com/site/indiyanaevent/

I know nothing about this... but it seems interesting.

GameboyRMH wrote: If you could get some software guys on the team, it would open up a lot more options though...

Ok, I've always wanted to learn software stuff. Tell me about these options. Probably will not have nearly as much interest, but it's worth a shot.

If you have coding ability on the team, that opens up a lot of robotics and autonomous vehicle competitions...DARPA hosts many if your team is OK with contributing to that sort of thing, college teams usually compete in their events.

IIRC Flugtag is judged on flight distance, but there are other "fun" prizes to be won as well.

GameboyRMH wrote: If you have coding ability on the team, that opens up a lot of robotics and autonomous vehicle competitions...DARPA hosts many if your team is OK with contributing to that sort of thing, college teams usually compete in their events. IIRC Flugtag is judged on flight distance, but there are other "fun" prizes to be won as well.

Any links? The Darpa competitions don't seem like a $10k competition...

Old ex-gf's father coached a high school team for this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_Supermileage_Competition which was pretty badass. Would love to find something similar to that.

Thanks for the ideas so far. One more bump. Any more ideas?

It would be nice if you could include a link to the sanctioning body/organization.

ProDarwin wrote: Thanks for the ideas so far. One more bump. Any more ideas? It would be nice if you could include a link to the sanctioning body/organization.

SAE has more events like that and highschools have joined in the past. forumla, baja, green snowmobile..

For info on the DARPA challenge, just search "DARPA autonomous challenge" and knock yourself out, they host many. The majority of them do require more than a $10k budget though, but some can even be done for under 4 digits (minus any travel expenses).

Similar competitions are hosted by other organizations and usually have lower budget requirements, such as Sparkfun as you've discovered.

If you can do autonomous vehicle stuff, you can also do robot fighting.

And here are the rules for Flugtag:

http://redbullflugtagusa.com/page/gamerules