CE Day 2009
by Teo Hui Juen
Publications and Publicity Director
CE Club 11th Management Committee
On 20 February 2009, the Civil Engineering Club held its annual CE Day at the atrium of block EA of the engineering faculty. Many members of the big NUS civil engineering family (professors, staff, undergraduates and graduate students) took time off their busy Friday schedules to attend this yearly event organised to encourage bonding among CE staff and students .
CE Day 2009 started at 2pm in the engineering auditorium with a speech by Professor Lee Fook Hou, the acting head of CE department, followed by presentations by CE club, Keppel (the official sponsor for CE Day 2009) and the Operation Orion project group to update CE staff and students of the ongoing activities in the department.
After a series of speeches and presentations to warm the day up, the audience adjourned to the atrium outside the auditorium for some fun and exciting carnival games. “Toss the ring”, “Hit the truss” (dart game) and “Shoot the tissue” (water gun shooting) were just some of the games that kept the crowd busy and brimming with enthusiasm. The visibly long queues for the games served to show their excitement as the top few CE members to accumulate the most points from playing the games stood a chance to walk away with fantastic prizes such as manicure and pedicure vouchers.
The EA atrium was a sea of vibrant orange as CE staff and students adorned the orange CE Day T-shirt which was given out free on that day. Our emcees Cynthia and Wei Kean kept the crowd busy with trivia questions and gave out spa vouchers to those lucky ones who were able to provide the correct answer.
4 bingo sessions were also conducted at their scheduled timings half an hour apart to keep the crowd entertained. It was an interesting sight to see many whipping out their pens and bingo sheets each time the bingo rounds were about to begin. Some for the love of the game, but most for the attractive prizes that stood to be won! These featured an external hard disk worth $120, an iPod Shuffle and a speaker set (consisting of 2 speakers and a subwoofer).
Held concurrently with the games was the highlight of the day – The Bridge Building Competition. Groups of 4 to 5 students were tasked to build a bridge using only ice cream sticks and glue. The bridges were subject to loading in 2 forms – vertical and lateral. CE members crowded around the testing zone with curiosity as Sim Chuan, our CE Club chairperson, gave a live commentary on the load testing. Many interesting bridge designs were displayed, but only a handful could withstand the heavy loads. The winning bridge could not fail even after all the weights available at the event ground were used up! That was how strong a few ice cream sticks turned out to be when constructed with ingenuity and innovation.
What better way was there to end the eventful day than a buffet dinner for all? The sumptuous spread included sushi, chicken wings, crab claws and spring rolls to tantalise the taste buds of the members of the CE family who took time to come down. Everyone went home happy, full and satisfied. A big thank you to all who made CE Day possible!