How do you build a better dunk tank? Add an engineering student, a barbeque grill, a water pump and about 20 feet of copper tubing.
“I think the dunk tank worked just fine — I mean look at me,” Professor Arup Maji said, sopping wet after a few rounds in the dunk tank. “The water heater was a really nice touch.”
It’s actually a thermo-transfer-heat-exchanger — after all, it is an engineer’s dunk tank.
UNM’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and Chi Epsilon, the engineering honor society, held a “dunk your professor” fundraiser on Wednesday. More than 100 students, faculty and staff lined up for a chance to send engineers into the tank, and then grab a quick lunch.
“This is a great opportunity for students and professors to bond and get to know each other,” Steven Gomez, president of UNM ASCE, said Wednesday. “We’re also hoping to raise money so we can compete in the ASCE Rocky Mountain Regional Competition.”
The group hopes to send students to the event to compete in two challenges. One challenge requires students to build a steel bridge, which is judged in various categories of competition, and the other requires students to build a concrete canoe and race against other schools.
“It takes a lot of time and resources,” Gomez said. “We also need to find people who are really interested in competing.”
Caitlin Hermanson, UNM ASCE treasurer, said she hopes the fundraiser will bring in at least $500.
“I think the turnout is great, but we have a lot of work ahead of us,” she said. “We have a lot of people lining up and spreading the wealth, but it’s going to be quite a journey to fundraise our way to the competition.”
The key to making the event profitable was the involvement of the civil engineering faculty.
“This is great,” Hermanson said. “We have all of our senior level instructors out here getting wet. We couldn’t do this without their involvement.”
Or without an engineer’s touch on the high-tech dunk-tank.
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Dave Bonham, UNM ASCE vice president, said he built the dunk tank’s water heater with 20 feet of copper pipe, a 30,000 BTU barbeque grill at 650 degrees and a pump that circulates 3,200 gallons per hour.
“We’re able to cycle the 500 gallon tank more than six times per hour,” he said. “If you think that’s something, you should see what we can do with a bathtub and a batch of yeast.”
