What do you get when you combine raw eggs, gravity, a second-story window and a room full of confident engineers? No, it’s not a new cooking show: it’s the Flying Egg Contest, landing (hopefully softly) on June 10 at the unibz Engineering Faculty at NOI Techpark!

This eggstraordinary event is open to everybody, provided each team includes at least one student from the Faculty of Engineering (B.Sc., M.Sc. or PhD). Teams of maximum 3 participants will design and assemble flying capsules that attempt one noble mission: protect a raw egg as it falls from the second floor and hits a target on the ground. Easier said than done.

But there’s a catch, or rather, no catch allowed. The capsule must fly freely, with no electronic devices, cables, or guided systems. And no sneaky tricks with boiled eggs: the raw material will be strictly supplied and inspected by the event’s jury panel.

Designs may be developed in advance, but all capsules must be assembled on site. Before the dramatic drop, students will present their creative contraptions to a panel of engineering faculty experts including Guido Orzes (Prof. of Management Engineering), Margherita Molinaro (researcher in Supply Chain Management), Yuri Borgianni (Prof. of Product development, design creativity), Franco Concli (Prof. of Gears), Veit Gufler (researcher oin Optimization of mechanical systems), Massimiliano Renzi (Prof. of Fluid machines and energy systems) and Lorenzo Maccioni (researcher in Machine Design and organizer of the event).

So what makes an egg drop egg-cellent? First of all, the egg must reach the ground without breaking. Broken eggs will not be considered by the jury. The judges will then score based on these criteria: landing accuracy, economic and environmental sustainability, creativity and originality of the developed solution, structural optimization, efficiency of the protection/damping system, aerodynamic performance.

Whether your capsule soars like an engineering marvel or splats like your GPA after fluid mechanics, the winning team will walk away with a commemorative plaque and, more importantly, eternal, campus-wide glory.

To enter the contest, please contact the organizer Lorenzo Maccioni (lorenzo.maccioni@unibz.it) with your team name and team members. And don’t forget your egg insurance!