Student Competitions

Elsevier Launches Engineering Academic Challenge

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 09/15/17

Elsevier will launch the Engineering Academic Challenge (EAC), now in its 12th year, Monday, Sept. 18.

The five-week challenge encourages engineering faculty and librarians to integrate real-world problem solving with STEM education by posing a series of cross-disciplinary questions. Created by engineering students at Drexel University, this year's questions cover issues such as access to water, the design and building of robots and the tools of scientific discovery.

Participants will have access to Knovel, Elsevier's engineering decision support tool, and Ei Compendex, an engineering bibliographic database from Elsevier.

As teams work on challenges throughout the competition, top-performing teams will win weekly prizes with overall winners selected at the end. Teams of one to five students are eligible and overall winners will be selected in individual and group categories, though only individual competitors will be awarded prizes. Weekly prizes include Amazon gift cards of $50, $30 and $20, respectively, for first, second and third place. The top performers will win Amazon gift cards worth $100 for first place, $60 for second and $40 for third.

"The Engineering Academic Challenge has evolved into a truly global event," said Sumita Singh, managing director of reference solutions at Elsevier, in a prepared statement. "Previously, the majority of participants have been in North America, but now — from [Asia Pacific] to Latin America — librarians and students have been organizing their own EAC events and taking part. Events like the EAC are vital in helping hone the skills of the next generation of engineers and scientists. Elsevier is committed to preparing engineers to succeed in the working world and equipping them with the knowledge and abilities they'll need to tackle the challenges of the 21st century."

For more information, or to register for the challenge, visit eac.elsevier.com.