D-Day Begins
And all of a sudden, here it is – a calendar is announcing 5th of November 2014, an alarm is relentlessly begging for attention (wake up, wake up!) and the first participants of the local round of EBEC 2015 are coming to the National Library of Technology in Dejvice. At this very moment, tables are already placed at their proper spots, the same applies for a necessary equipment for Team Design and the organizers are only tuning last details (a refreshment should be fresh, as it says the word itself). And a stand of P&G, the general sponsor of EBEC, is being prepared in front of an entrance, so it is clear that the Case Study category will also be taken care of.
What about the T-shirts, do we have them? OK, we do! So it seems like everything should be running smoothly today. And there is our first participant asking for his nametag…
And lets go!
An hour has passed, the introduction is over. The teams are using their brains at full blast and devoting all their energy to creativity. Everybody knows that for the jury it will be the main aspect. This is suggested by assignments themselves: the task for Team Design is to construct a mythical launching device and in Case Study the contestants are trying to improve a washing powder manufacturing process by „smuggling“ a plastic scope inside a package. The organizers with the jury are also checking if everybody is following the rules of fair play.
When the first participants are getting hungry, it is about time to get some snack. During the lunch break, a group photo is taken in front of the library and there are also some presentations. But nobody can relax for too long. A good ingeneer drinks two or three cups of coffee instead of break and – back to work! Oh my god, why is it always shooting straight to the ground? It’s like Angry Birds all over again…
The end is near, now we will see…
The afternoon is here, all teams have done a good job and the last grains of sand are falling down in a sandglass. With a sound of hammers from downstairs, teams in Case Study are finishing their presentations at the upper floor – some of them during the last few seconds! Right after this they have to step in front of the presentation board. Now it is time for some rhetorical art. The speakers are coming one after another and as expected, every team has handled the topic their own way. After the presentation, the contestants are being asked a few intrusive questions from the jury and they try to answer them the best they can. Yes, it wouldn’t be nice if it broke down. But there is an applause from the audience – it seems we made it.
The mangonels and catapults are ready. They will get their own moment of fame as well. Moreover, in this category the audience will see the practical demonstrations! Paper balls are being fired and the wall are being torn down as if they were made of plastic cups. And the fairytales come to life…
And we know the winners!
It is getting dark outside, the teams have presented their skills and the jury is announcing their decisions. The Team Design category has been dominated byMachine Tool Guys and their gun and in Case Study category the presentation ofHertzovy tlaky was the most convincing. An applause and congratulations – each of them has won the main prize, a beer barrel! And the rest of the participants is getting some smaller rewards, too.
The local round of EBEC is over and we know the teams advancing to the next one, which will take place in Prague by chance as well! And if anyone hasn’t applied for the contest this year in time, you can start forming a new team for the next year right now. We will do our BEST to make it better than this one… no – than all the previous ones combined!
At the end we would like to thank all our partners and organizations that made the local round of EBEC possible: P&G, CTU in Prague, Teplárna Otrokovice, KAMAX and Klášterní pivovar Břevnov. Thank you!
And the same goes for AVC CTU which prepared from the event this short movie: