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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.