Teams of four assembled into their groups in anticipation of the competition for the College of Engineering’s E-Mazing Race, which started at 1 p.m. Sunday at Howe Hall.

The E-Mazing Race was part of the 2020 Engineers’ Week (E-Week), which celebrates the College of Engineering this year with the theme of “Breaking the Boundaries of Engineering.”

In the past years, the E-Mazing Race has had similar counterparts. The E-Mazing Race contest is an evolution from the E-lympics event that took place during Engineers’ Week of 2017.

At the E-Mazing Race event, each team was given clues. They then needed to figure out where their activity was taking place based on those clues so they could go to the next location needed.

Rachel Origer, senior in civil engineering and student engagement co-chair for the student organization Engineers’ Week, said she enjoys how creative she gets to be through event planning for the week.

“We have student orgs that have volunteered to have different little activities at each of our stops,” Origer said. “[Students] go there and complete the task, and some tasks have time penalties, where if they don’t complete it they get time added on to their total running time.”

E-Mazing Race participants gathered in the lower level of Howe Hall to sign in and begin strategizing with their teammates.

Allyson Ehlers, senior in chemical engineering, got a group of her friends together to compete in the event.

“I think it is really fun to participate in Iowa State events, especially E-Week,” Ehlers said. “There are a lot of prizes. This is kind of my first time [participating], and one of my friends is on the board so she got us to come.”

Among the six locations students went to for the race, senior in electrical engineering Philip Markose’s favorite challenge was the paper airplane competition in Sukup Hall.

“It required little to no teamwork; I was the only one to make a paper airplane and I got it on my first try,” Markose said. “We have been doing [competitions] as a team since freshman year. It started with the Cy-Mazing Race by the Alumni Association, and we did it here with the E-Mazing race for Engineers’ Week. It’s a wonderful time — the only time most of us get exercise. It’s a great way to kick off a week that’s packed with fun activities.”

Markose and his group went on to win first place in the 2020 E-Mazing Race competition. His group consisted of himself, Matthew Markose, senior in software engineering, Dawson Fox, senior in materials engineering, and John Jasonowicz, senior in industrial engineering.

Shelby Baker is a senior in chemical engineering and Engineers’ Week’s student engagement co-chair, along with Origer.

“Each committee has their own things they do,” Baker said. “The [student engagement] committee is planning a lot of the events that revolve around students, and find ways of how to keep everybody engaged.”

The E-Mazing Race was previously set to take place in the Student Innovation Center prior to their soft opening, but the Engineers’ Week 2020 executive committee was met with issues due to scheduling and time constraints with contractors for the Student Innovation Center.

“We were really excited to work with them,” Origer said. “Hopefully next year, because they are definitely interested in working with us.”

Engineers’ Week has an Instagram page students can continue to follow throughout the week for updated information on the week’s events and opportunities for prizes through social media giveaways.

The 2020 Engineers’ Week will continue with events and activities through Friday. The full list of events can be viewed on the College of Engineering’s website.