As the teams work to finish building, testing, and tweaking their pumpkin launchers, the Residence Hall Association (RHA) is getting together the supplies for pumpkin carving and the Office of Campus Life works to welcome prospective students and their families at the 8th Annual IIT Pumpkin Launch!

Don’t miss this exciting event in which student teams use pumpkin-launching machines they design and build to compete for prizes for distance and accuracy. Established by the IIT Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) eight years ago, this grand IIT tradition is fun for engineers, families, lovers of medieval siege engines, and anyone who likes to see pumpkins get smashed after hurtling through the air.  What sort of designs will win this year’s competition? Catapult, trebuchet, ballista, or something entirely new? You’ll have to be there to find out!

The launch will start promptly at 1:00 pm at Ed Glancy Baseball Field on Saturday, October 13.  All students, alumni, faculty, staff, family and friends are welcome to attend.  There will be fall treats for the launch and a pumpkin carving event will follow the awards ceremony.

The 8th Annual IIT Pumpkin Launch is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the IIT Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), Office of Campus Life (OCL), Resident Hall Association (RHA), Department of Biomedical Engineering, IIT Alumni Association, Illinois Tech Athletics, and the Student Activities Fund (SAF).