Released December 3, 2008

LINCOLN, Neb. — A block of cheese, some red gelatin and rice cakes may not seem to have much in common, but they do. All have been used in edible cars created by freshmen in a University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineering class.

Students in Dennis Schulte's introductory biological systems and agricultural engineering class are preparing to demonstrate their edible cars at E-Day Dec. 9 at the Nebraska East Union. Three to four students are a team, each of which must use food to create miniature cars.

Schulte started the Incredible Edible Car competition a few years ago to foster teamwork among his students. There is one simple rule: The car must be made of food and nothing else. Oh – and the students must eat the car at the end of the competition.

"It's their first engineering design project," he said. "There is no right or wrong design."

Schulte has seen a variety of designs since he started the project. He has seen car bodies made from hunks of summer sausage and buns, axles from uncooked spaghetti and candy canes and wheels from rice cakes and cookies. The most unappetizing car he has seen was made from a block of cheese that was hollowed out and filled with red gelatin.

"Who knows why they did it that way. They're engineers. These poor kids had to eat that thing."

E-Day, a day for engineers, is held annually in the union. Seniors show their engineering projects and engineering companies set up displays. Thirty to 40 displays are expected at this year's event, which is open to the public, Schulte said.

The edible car competition will be one of the activities at the event. The teams must roll their cars down a sloped makeshift track to see which one travels farthest. The top three teams receive a certificate. Schulte expects 18 cars in this year's competition, and each team must make a poster detailing the process of making the car.

Freshmen BSE students Brendan Feehan of Rapid City, S.D., and Kayla Anderson and Catheryn Amenta, both of Omaha, decided their car will have a holiday theme and they planned to use candy canes as one of the ingredients.

"I thought it sounded like a fun thing and also a challenge," Amenta said.

"We test them a week before Christmas break so we thought we might as well make it a Christmas car," Feehan said.

The Department of Biological Systems Engineering is jointly in the College of Engineering and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, which is a part of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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http://ianrnews.unl.edu/static/0812030.shtml

Contact: Dennis D. Schulte, (402) 472-3930

Lori McGinnis, (402) 472-0918