Two robots, not more than a foot high, tried to remove 21 small metal balls from a basketball court and then swiftly slam them into a hoop.
In another area, groups of students, both from UK and from an area middle school, also competed in the Rube Goldberg contest by building the most elaborate contraptions possible to perform simple tasks, like juicing a grapefruit.
Later, engineering students used their engineering knowledge to progress through an obstacle course in the E-Lympics.
This sounds like a strange array of activities, but they were just a few of the displays and presentations featured at this year's Engineering Open House, which is part of National Engineers Week.
Bob Dugan, one of the coordinators for Engineering Day, was pleased about the outcome of the event that attracted about 500 people to campus this weekend.
"This year had a record crowd," said Dugan, director of engineering services. "For a while, it was wall-to-wall people."
The day was sponsored by the College of Engineering and the Engineering Student Council. It began at 10 a.m. Saturday with the model bridge construction contest.
Contestants built balsa wood bridges and tested them for strength and durability. Other competitions included the mechanical model car contest, the calculator toss and the radio-controlled car contest.
Some of the research labs were open, displaying the work of some of the graduate students. Most of the divisions of the engineering college also were represented.
The agricultural, mining, biomedical, civil, electrical, computer science, mechanical and chemical departments of engineering had displays and presentations.
Most exciting, Dugan said, was the number of younger students who attended.
"At least three-fourths of those who came É were middle school students and high school students and their parents," he said.
Many local engineering companies were also involved. LexMark had a large exhibit explaining laser printers. Square D displayed an electric vehicle charging station for the electrically powered cars of the future.
Kevin Quan, engineering student council vice president and co-coordinator for the event, seemed very excited about the day's outcome.
"It was awesome," said Quan, an engineering sophomore. "(Engineering Day) was an overall success."
The afternoon's activities ended around 3 p.m. Saturday evening, the first annual Engineers Ball was held at Lansdowne Club.
Quan said Engineering Day is one of the most important engineering events at UK and National Engineers Week.
"(This day) is important because so much of the public doesn't realize what engineers do," he said. "It also educates future engineers and advertises for UK to perspective students."
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