The Brown University Society for Women Engineers held its seventh annual "Extreme Gingerbread House Competition" on Friday, December 6. Sixteen teams of three to five students participated. The designs ranged from the traditional to the modern, and included a triangular-shaped house and several circular/stadium-shaped houses in addition to hexagonal and square-shaped houses.
Once again this year, the teams were challenged to build earthquake resistant gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, icing, pretzels, mints, gum drops, gummy bears and other supplied materials in a one-hour time period. Houses were required to be hollow with a maximum wall thickness of one inch, and had to exceed 6" x 6" x6". The houses were judged both for aesthetics, and amount of time without breaking on a shake table. Celebrity faculty judges included Dean Larry Larson, Assistant Professor (Research) Karen Haberstroh, and Assistant Professor Anita Shukla.
Winning Team: Team Erica Kahn 2 (Catherine Bautistia '14, Erica Kahn '14, Allison Hojsak '14, and Jill Pandiscio '14) won the SWE Extreme Gingerbread CompetitionAfter several of the team members finished in second place last year, Team Erica Kahn 2 (Catherine Bautista '14, Alison Hojsak '14, Erica Kahn '14, and Jill Pandiscio '14) won the competition this year. The house survived the full time on the shake table and was designed to look like the gear in the SWE logo.
Team Fresh (Cynthia Hale-Phillips '17, Nari Lee '17, and Martine Matecyzyk RISD '17) took second place.
The team of Seong Won Kim '15, Sukhyun Jung '15 and Haeri Yoon '15 finished third.
All three teams received gift certificates to local restaurants for their efforts.
For a full photo gallery of the event, please go to: