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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 1980)
1 n IOO 1 m - ' 1 ^mwl ^ / Page 3, April 17, 1980 l/K/nners p/ay fAie/r cards right’ by Jed T. Young Battalion Reporter “On your mark ... get set ... stack!” Stack your cards that is. Last Tuesday, each team in the Upsilon Pi Epsilon card stacking contest was trying to “play their cards right” and build the tallest stack of compu ter data cards. A team called Yoazz did just that, winning the contest with a 16 foot, 3V2 inch stack. Upsilon Pi Epsilon, which began in 1967, is the computer science honor society. To be a member, one must have completed 18 hours of computer science courses and have maintained a 3.5 grade point ratio. The contest was Upsilon Pi Epsi lon’s pledge project, said Tony Hooten, pledge class vice- president. Steve Chandler, vice-president for Upsilon Pi Epsilon, said the last time that the card stacking contest was held was in the spring of 1976, and there were only four teams en tered. This year there were eight teams. “The winner of that contest (1976) won with a stack of 8 1 /2 feet,” Chandler said. The eight teams that were en tered in this year’s contest were composed of mostly engineering and computer science students. Besides the winning team Yoazz, the rest of the competitors were the Aero Archers, the EE’s, Erectors, Tammy Whynots, Bio Engineers, The Society for Putting Things on Top of Things and the Fortran Stackers. The entrance fee, which was used to buy t-shirts and a trophy for the winning team, was $5 per team. The object of the contest was to stack, twist, or manipulate compu ter data cards as high as possible, in the 30 minutes allowed. Each team had to provide their own scis sors and ladders, and the computer science department provided two boxes of data cards for each team. The cards could be stacked in any way, either folded or cut, but stackers could not use tape or glue. The cards had to stand on their own for 15 seconds, and the teams could be judged when they were ready, at any point during the 30 minute time limit. The judges were Dr. Dan Drew, professor of computing science, and Dr. Newton Ellis, professor and head of the industrial engineering department. Before the contest began, each team positioned itself around the mall area in the Zachry Engineering Center. They were serious about the contest as most teams had worked on their designs and had spent time practicing the stacking techniques. They stood ready, awaiting the starting instructions. Members of the Bio Engineering team said that their strategy was to simply build the tallest tower of cards. Dean Willis, freshman mecha nical engineering major and spokesman for the Aero Archers, said that their team had studied possible designs and chose an actual engineering design — a hon eycomb structure. “The honeycomb structure re sembles a honeycomb, and is used in construction of things you want to be light and strong, like an airplane wing,” Willis said. The Erectors said that their strategy was to stack separate sec tions of cards and then to stack the sections on top of each other, with the help of the step ladder they had conveniently brought along. Finally, Hooten blew a whistle to get everyone’s attention, went over the rules, and started the 30 minute countdown. The mall was crowded with spec tators as the contest got under way, and each team started to stack. Some team members were fold ing data cards, while some were stacking the folded cards. Most teams used basically the same technique of laying flat cards on top of cards that were cut and slipped together or were folded into squares or triangles to provide a base. As the race progressed, it was clear that Yoazz and the Bio En gineers were ahead of the other teams. With the crowd screaming and with two minutes left, the Bio Engineers were ahead of Yoazz by only a few inches. The Bio Engineers’ design was more of a tube of computer cards with the cards rolled together in stead of a stack. The Yoazz team’s design consisted of cards folded into squares with flat cards stacked on top. Yoazz wasn’t going to give up easily and started to pull ahead of the Bio Engineers when they added the last few layers to the top of their structure. Finally, the 30 minutes were up and the judges made their decision. Yoazz was declared the winner with a stack of 16 feet, 3 1 /2 inches over the 16 foot, 1 inch tower of Bio En gineers. Kathy Tyllick, a Yoazz member, said that they had worked a few days on their design. Another mem ber, Dean Saito, said that the win was due to the tremendous team work. “Last night we finally came up with a good plan and we practiced,” he said. Judge Drew said that although Bio Engineers may have had the best design, (the tubular one) Yoazz was still able to pull away by a few inches in the last few minutes. Drew said that he was able to see which stack was the tallest since he was up on the second level of the center looking across at the same height as the stacks. Cheryl Prince, president of Up silon Pi Epsilon, said the card stack ing contest will be an annual event sponsored by their honor society. Some teams were disappointed because their stacks didn’t win. Kevin Cogan, a senior mechanic al engineering student and member of the Erector team, said, “We just couldn’t get it up like we did in prac tice.” Well, maybe next year fellows. The winning team watches its creation judged the tallest at a height of 16 feet, 3V2 cascade toward the floor after being inches.