By Isabella Chow
The first annual Academic Olympiad of the School of Engineering and Applied Science was held on Wednesday, February 22, 1995. The Schiff Room in FBH was lively with friendly competition as both on-lookers and contestants cheered for their teams. The competition involved SEAS students representing the groups AASE (Asian American Society of Engineers), NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers), SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers), and SWE (Society of Women Engineers). All questions were taken from a GRE (Graduate Record Examination) test-preparation guide and read by moderator Ingrid Rodriguez (SEAS '97). LeShan Delesline (SEAS '95) was scorekeeper for the night.
The first round of multiple choice questions consisted primarily of short-answer calculations. The scores for the round were AASE 32, SHPE 15, SWE 61, and NSBE 36. The second round of short answer questions also went to SWE, who scored 66 points. AASE scored 62, SHPE 66, and NSBE 67. The third and final round was a problem-solving session in which each team was designated a specific category. Every team was given the opportunity to answer the questions in their category. Incorrect answers were not penalized, but other teams could then answer the questions to win extra points.
The SWE team, seniors Amanda Adams, Elizabeth Iteld, and Madhu Shetty, captured more points in the third round from problems designated for their own team as well as the others. AASE, NSBE, SHPE, and SWE, were assigned with the categories of Materials Science, Thermodynamics, Fluid Theory and Electrical Theory, respectively, were far behind. There was no definitive second-place winner until the very last question from Electrical Theory, was forfeited by SWE and snapped up by AASE, winning AASE 20 points and putting them 7 points away from first-place SWE, who triumphed with a total score of 89. NSBE and SHPE ended the competition with scores of 67 and 66, respectively.
NSBE's three-man team was David Antonio (SEAS '95), Steven Jean (SEAS '98), Andrae Nicholas (SEAS '98). Roberto Vidal (8th year graduate student), Gilbert Saiz (SEAS '97), and Luis Moquete (SEAS '95) represented SHPE. All contestants received SEAS t-shirts and commemorative stickers for their participation in this first-ever "Engineering Jeopardy!". AASE representatives Raymond Mak (SEAS '96), Simon Poon (SEAS '96) and Jack Tsai (SEAS '98) were pleased with their last-second comeback. "I can't believe it! I thought we'd be dead last for sure," said Mr. Mak, a Civil Engineering major. Mr. Poon of the Materials Science department agreed, adding, "We were really lucky to get that last one."