OEDK Innovate offers creative design challenge

The Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen is presenting an opportunity for students, faculty and staff aimed at testing creativity and skill at various challenges, OEDK Director Maria Oden said. 

According to Oden, every Friday of this semester, except for during spring break and midterm recess, an OEDKInnovate event will be held from 12-1 p.m. for up to 45 participants. Each week will feature a unique task targeted at different aspects of the creative design process, Oden said. 

According to Oden, the purpose of this event is to work in teams to stretch the powers of observation to form remarkable solutions to everyday problems. Participants are not expected to have any prior knowledge to complete the challenge. 

Oden said she recognizes students may have other commitments at 1 p.m. 

“Participants will be able to register on-site beginning at 11:50 a.m. in the OEDK computer lab,” Oden said. “The program will begin at 12:05 p.m. sharp and will end by 12:55 p.m.” 

Upon registration, participants will be divided randomly into teams of three people, Oden said. Participants may neither choose their own teams nor work with the same members more than once. 

Participants will be given the appropriate materials to work with and specific instructions at the start of every challenge.Oden said most of the challenges must be completed within a time limit and will be assessed on-site. The winning team will split a $300 prize among the three participants. 

Oden said she got the idea for the program after attending a meeting this summer called “Frontiers of Engineering Education” and talking to a professor from St. Louis University about a similar program at his university. 

“[At SLU,] the challenge became a kind of a weekly institution,” Oden said. “They had to move it into the student center because so many people came to participate and watch the event. I want Rice’s OEDK’s Innovate program to eventually be that full.” 

This program is being funded through money given directly to the OEDK in support of its activities, Oden said. In the future, Oden hopes to encourage sponsors for this program. 

This past Friday, roughly 55 participants showed up to the first OEDK Innovate challenge. The first 45 participants were given entrance. For the first challenge, participants were given three jigsaw puzzles and were instructed to finish each one within the time limit. Oden said the first puzzle consisted of 100 pieces. The second puzzle was a bit trickier; participants were allowed to look at the picture for one minute. The third puzzle was a 3-D model of a cat. 

Brown College junior Melody Tan, one of the three first-place winners of the competition, said that without coordination within the group, success would have not have been possible. 

“We definitely had to work together to solve the puzzles,” Tan said. “For example, for the second puzzle, each of us memorized one section of the puzzle and proceeded to build that section in particular.” 

Jones College freshman Madeleine Crouch, another winner of the first OEDK Innovate challenge, arrived without any expectations for the hour. 

“I wanted to attend the challenge because I wanted to meet other students interested in solving puzzles and thinking outside the box,” Crouch said. “I also wanted to challenge myself by attempting to solve some difficult problems that fell outside the scope of normal classwork.” 

According to OEDK Administrative Coordinator Marilee Dizon, the registration computers crashed prior to the event. The problem was solved almost immediately, leaving a smooth run for the first OEDK Innovate challenge. 

“If, in the future, our biggest problem is a malfunction with our computers, I’ll consider every week a success,” Dizon said. 

Oden said each week’s winning team would be featured on the OEDK website at oedk.rice.edu.