{"id":313616,"date":"2026-10-24T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313616\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T22:14:09","slug":"jefferson-university-launches-inaugural-punkin-chunkin-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313616\/","title":{"rendered":"Jefferson University launches inaugural punkin chunkin contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of spectators gathered behind a tall fence to watch the teams in action. Students wore goggles as they prepared their launchers, while members of the university\u2019s safety team supervised.\n<\/p>\n

Barbara Klinkhammer, dean of the college, which was just formed in July after a reorganization of the university, said that the event encapsulates the university\u2019s focus on \u201ccollaboration across disciplines.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see that spark when the students are working together, and you have an engineering student working with an architecture student together to work one of these catapult machines,\u201d she said.
\n\"UniversityThe winners of Thomas Jefferson University\u2019s inaugural punkin chunkin contest, \u201cLiability Launchers,\u201d prepare their machine for launch on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The challenge also gives students the opportunity to apply classroom learning to a tangible challenge.\n <\/p>\n

But for Charlotte Wilson, a 22-year-old senior in industrial design, signing up was \u201cjust kind of for fun.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just like building things, so it\u2019s really nice to have an excuse to do something, especially when something is being thrown,\u201d said Wilson, one of four students on the winning team, \u201cLiability Launchers,\u201d who took home $500 and a trophy.\n<\/p>\n

Braeden Escobar, a sophomore in architecture, signed up with Evan Franco, a sophomore majoring in construction management, for similar reasons.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI just said, \u2018You know what? That seems like fun,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cGot nothing better to do, so why not put the engineering to the test?\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Franco said when Escobar asked him to be on a team he agreed. \u201cI was bored,\u201d Franco said.
\n\"StudentsEvan Franco, left, and Braeden Escobar, right, prepare their pumpkin-launching contraption ahead of Thomas Jefferson University\u2019s inaugural contest. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The duo constructed a trebuchet using a 240-pound counterweight. Escobar said the hardest part was translating knowledge on the page into the real world.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theory was not difficult at all. The practice is fairly difficult,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

Klinkhammer said the college plans to build on the event and invite high schools and students from other higher education institutions to participate in future editions.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of spectators gathered behind a tall fence to watch the teams in action. Students wore goggles as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12237,23109,69,71,70,1384],"class_list":["post-313616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-engineering","tag-jefferson-university","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-suburbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}