Middle and high school students in the Memphis area will compete in the Herff College of Engineering’s 10th annual Canstruction event.
The Herff College of Engineering at the University of Memphis will host the 10th annual Canstruction competition for middle and high school students on Friday.
The competition will take place from 9 a.m. to noon in the in the courtyard between the three engineering buildings or in the Rose Theater lobby, if it rains.
U of M students will be able to vote on their favorite structures from noon to 1 p.m. Stephanie Ivey, associate professor in the department of civil engineering, is planning the entire event.
“It is not only a way to do a design competition, but it also gives back to the community,†Ivey said.
Canstruction is a competition that allows middle and high school students from around the world demonstrate their skills in engineering.
The charity was started in 1992 by Cheri Melillo and her colleagues from the Society for Design Administration, according to the Canstruction website.
Students will use canned goods to build structures, which are displayed as art sculptures. After the competition, the canned goods are donated to a local food bank.
This year’s competition will include 15 teams made up of 200 middle and high school students from the Memphis area.
It will be the most teams that have ever participated in the Memphis Canstruction competition, Ivey said.
Teams will have three hours to finish their structure and are allowed to have up to five members building at a time.
There is no limit to the amount of cans each team can use, but they will have an eight cubic foot area they are allowed to use for their design. Each team will also have a professional civil engineer and a civil engineering student with their team to serve as mentors.
There will be winners for the best use of labels in the design, best overall meal, structural ingenuity, people’s choice and juror’s favorite.
Each school was given sponsorship funds at the beginning of the program to help purchase canned goods. Students in the competition also raised over 128,000 pounds of canned goods for the competition.
While in high school, Ian Tyler, a civil engineering junior at the U of M, participated in the Canstruction competition in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to do,†Tyler said. “My team did not win, but I learned that I’m really passionate about building stuff.â€
Tyler’s high school teacher, Jake Upton, helped encourage him to pursue the field of engineering through the Canstruction competition, he said.
They would collect cans for the food banks, then use them to practice building structures.
“Mr. Upton was one of the coolest dudes,†Tyler said. “He had a whole class that all we did was build stuff. The best part was each month we would spend a Saturday delivering the cans we gathered to the food banks.â€
All canned good from the competition will be donated to the Mid-South Food Bank, which will distribute them to pantries, soup kitchens, day cares and the elderly
