Pumpkin Launch

By Kennesaw State University

November 2^nd, 2021

Students participate in annual engineering challenge

The familiar yell of “fire in the hole” rang out on Kennesaw State University’s Marietta Campus during the annual Pumpkin Launch on Monday afternoon.

Approximately 270 first-year mechanical engineering students showed off weeks of hard work as they lined up 16-foot-tall slingshots, catapults and trebuchets, capable of launching pumpkins across the Neusoft Technologies Field.

“Pumpkin Launch is a signature event for the University and combines relevant academic experience with pure fun,” said David Veazie, professor of mechanical engineering in KSU’s Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SPCEET). “It shows our first-year students that engineering is not always lab reports, homework and exams. They have the opportunity to work as a team and use their creativity in the design phase and then put it to the test at Pumpkin Launch.”

Pumpkin Launch started more than a decade ago at Southern Polytechnic State University. The number of students participating in Pumpkin Launch has increased nearly every year because of increased enrollment. After a pandemic-related hiatus in 2020, students and faculty members were excited to be back on the field to test the students’ creations.

Rules state the students can build a catapult, trebuchet, spring-air cannon, slingshot or floating arm trebuchet, but the device must be purely mechanical and cannot rely on chemicals or electrical power. It also can be no more than 16 feet tall, 12 feet long and 12 feet wide, while the counterweight cannot exceed 1,500 pounds.

Matthew Barbour’s team, who called themselves The National Pumpkin Association, decided to build a spring-air cannon, one of the more challenging launching devices.

“There’s a lot of math done behind the scenes,” Barbour said. “You have to consider how much weight you have and the angle you want to release the pumpkin for maximum distance.”

After opening remarks from SPCEET Dean Ian Ferguson, each of the nearly 30 teams lined up along the back of the field and took turns sending their pumpkin as far as possible. In between heats, members of the self-named student teams had the opportunity to adjust their launching devices.

“The biggest issue for our launching device is that our sling is short,” Dylan Abair said after his team, The Pantheon, launched its first pumpkin. “If we could increase the length of the sling, it would whip better which could increase our launch distance.”

Each team had three opportunities to launch a 10-pound pumpkin. Some flew dozens of yards while others met an unfortunate fate as they splattered a few feet from the launcher.

Starting from scratch

While the creations on the field towered over the spectators, they had humble beginnings.

Early in the semester, Veazie stood in front of his students, like he has done for more than a decade, to explain the goal of Pumpkin Launch. Students were then assembled into teams of 8-10 members and tasked with designing the best pumpkin launching device.

In late September, teams presented their designs, which included goals, constraints, sketches, an analysis on projectile motion and potential hazards, to the class and received feedback from Veazie and Jeffrey Bernard, environmental health specialist at KSU. Students were then given $150 to purchase materials and tools for their device.

“I want to make sure it works so we don’t have to take the final,” captain Catherine Wilson said to her team, The Akatsuki, as they built a trebuchet. Team members laughed and wholeheartedly agreed. The students knew if they could be one of the top performing teams, they would not have to take Veazie’s final exam.

Several students admitted the process of building the structure was more difficult than expected.

“I thought it would be like Legos where you buy materials then put them together,” Connor Porter, captain of the team Kruger’s Kronies, said. But I realized sometimes you have the wrong pieces or the pieces you thought would work, do not work. It’s a challenge.”

The aftermath

After an exciting day of launches, adjustments and splattering pumpkins, several teams took home bragging rights:

Distance

Tie between Pumpkin Punishers and Sophisticated Slingers (approximately 280 feet)

Accuracy

Tie between Pumpkins in Outer Orbit and Pilgrims and Indians

Pumpkin Decorating

First place: Pumpkin Spice Lattes
Honorable Mention: Pumpkin Kings

After the launch was over, the sustainability team at KSU gathered the pumpkin scraps in decomposable cardboard boxes and took them to local farms where chickens received a fresh meal. This tradition has been in place for a few years, in an effort to reduce food waste.

While some team names will be etched in the Pumpkin Launch trophy as winners, others will take away memories of the trials and errors, and hopefully the determination to succeed, as they head into the rest of their time as undergraduate students at KSU.

“I learned a lot about the engineering process while working on this project,” first-year student Lev Belegradek, member of the team Kruger’s Kronies, said. “People have different schedules and work in different ways. Just like in the engineering profession, you have to coordinate well with others and adapt."