Media Advisory: Students build biscuit-bakers for hands-on engineering design experience

Oct. 10, 2022

Media Advisory: Students build biscuit-bakers for hands-on engineering design experience

What: The University of Arizona College of Engineering will hold its annual Solar Oven Throw Down competition.
When: 1-2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12
Where: University of Arizona Mall, east of the Joseph Wood Krutch Cactus Garden

TUCSON, Ariz. – More than 600 first-year engineering students will gather on the University of Arizona Mall on Wednesday to cook biscuits in solar ovens they crafted from common, low-cost materials such as cardboard, duct tape and aluminum foil.

The College of Engineering will take over the Mall for its annual Solar Oven Throw Down, which is one of the first hands-on design experiences students get as part of the college's four-year Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Program.

They'll be joined by 30 students from Salpointe Catholic High School who are taking the college's Engineering 102 High School course, an introductory engineering course that allows high school students to get university credit.

The students spent the last several months applying thermodynamic and mathematical concepts to the design and construction of the ovens. Their goal is to predict the highest temperatures their ovens will reach under the Arizona sun.

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Media contact:
Katy Smith
College of Engineering
520-271-3780
katysmith@arizona.edu

The University of Arizona, a land-grant university with two independently accredited medical schools, is one of the nation's top 50 public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1885, the university is widely recognized as a student-centric university and has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. The university ranked in the top 20 in 2020 in research expenditures among all public universities, according to the National Science Foundation, and is a leading Research 1 institution with $761 million in annual research expenditures. The university advances the frontiers of interdisciplinary scholarship and entrepreneurial partnerships as a member of the Association of American Universities, the 66 leading public and private research universities in the U.S. It benefits the state with an estimated economic impact of $4.1 billion annually. For the latest on the University of Arizona response to the novel coronavirus, visit the university's COVID-19 webpage.

The University of Arizona Land Acknowledgement