The Rice Center for Engineering Leadership held its 7th annual freshmen “Engineering Liftoff” on Saturday, Sept. 8, in the RMC Grand Hall. RCEL Faculty Director Dr. C Fred Higgs III and Executive Director Kaz Karwowski opened the event – attended by over 120 students – by speaking about the importance of leadership skills for engineers and RCEL’s goals and curricula. The event featured a fast-paced design/build competition, followed by a bountiful Breakfast Klub-catered dinner. RCEL Student Leader Saurabh Harohalli (senior, ECE) emceed the event, and RCEL’s head of student engagement Gigi Rill (senior, MECH) coordinated attendance, coaches, and logistics. Rill, Constantine Tzouanas (senior, BIOE), Anna Cowan (senior, CAAM) and Kevin Zhang (senior, ChBE) served as Pod Leaders, serving as a resource for the teams to answer questions question and clarify the rues. Many students lingered well after the event’s official close to continue getting to know each other!
The competition’s first place winner’s included:
Juan Antonio de Carcer, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Sherry Lin, Bioengineering
Alyssa Jordan, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Matthew Whaley, Mechanical Engineering
Shreya Nidadavolu, Computational and Applied Mathematics, took home the event door prize – a GoPro HERO!
