| Sports in Electrical Engineering By Jeff Woodward Whoever thought that engineers couldn't be athletes? Well, if you thought that you are truly mistaken. Engineers are athletes and they do know how to have fun. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) funded three different sporting events this year. The competition was fierce and the fun was shared by all. These sporting events included the racquetball tournament, the basketball night, and the golf tournament. The first of these sporting events to start the fun off this semester was the racquetball tournament. This event lasted all of the spring semester 1996, and participants were both graduate and undergraduate students. The tournament was double elimination and it started out with a total of sixteen people with skills ranging from beginner to expert. The tournament started out with a bang but ended up not finishing. Come on! Everyone knows what happens when exams and finals come along. There is no time to have any more fun. Study. Study. Study. It is kind of a shame that the tournament did not get finished, since the winner would have won a UNH Engineering sweatshirt. Oh well! C'est la vie! Hopefully, they will try again next year. One person had a comment about the tournament not finishing. I talked to a graduate student named Brian Kirk and I asked him what he thought of the racquetball tournament. His reply was, "It was great! But I wish it ended." Sorry Bri, but you are going to have to wait until next year to win that sweatshirt. The next sporting event was a basketball night and it was a roaring success. What a blast! There were about 40 people who showed up to play and watch the game. This game was not officiated, but it actually turned out to be a pretty decent game. The faculty/graduate student team was defeated by a much younger and larger (in terms of sheer numbers) undergraduate team. The final score was 42-37 (scoring by ones). I also asked a few people if they had fun at the hoop night. The responses were overwhelmingly favorable. Wayne Smith, a graduate student, said, "Oohhpff! Yeah! Why didn't we get another game going?" I apologize for not getting that done. It would have been fun, but it also would have been difficult to get a game going that close to the end of the year. I also talked to one undergraduate, John Fernald, who had a pretty challenging remark when I asked him the same question. "Oh yeah! I thought we were gonna get another game. I would like to have seen how that turned out. It probably would have been more of a massacre!" Sounds like a challenge for the faculty for next year. What do you think? The golf day was another big success for the IEEE this year. We had four teams playing in a best ball golf tournament. This golf day turned out to be another rousing success. Included in the players were one EE professor, two EE graduate students, nine EE undergraduate students, and four non-EE's. This tournament actually came down to the wire. The tournament finished with the team of Jason Gerry, James Inglee, Tom Marra, and George Fitch (otherwise known as GAF) coming out on top. When I asked a couple of people what they thought of the golf day, these were some of the typical responses : "That was awesome! I wish I didn't have to leave early. Our team would have won if I didn't leave." "I had a blast. It was a good opportunity to get out with a group of friends and have a good time." Well, that is it for sports in electrical engineering. I helped in all of the sporting events which went on, and I am proud to say as an electrical engineering graduate student... We are competitive! We enjoy sports! We do have fun!
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