A team of Undergraduate students of Chemical Engineering of the University of Oviedo has won the Spanish Friendly Competition organized by the international enterprise Fluor all around the world as part of the Engineering Week 2014. The Asturian engineers placed among the first 10 teams with their design of a prototype created with office materials.

Selma Corrales, Guillermo Chica, Ana Jiménez and Darío Menéndez competed against the 420 teams that participated in the contest promoted by Fluor in the 50 offices that the international enterprise has in the five continents. The Engineering Week is a set of activities aimed at promoting the interest in sciences in general, and in Engineering in particular, and in whose organization more than 100 institutions and enterprises participate.

The challenge proposed this year to the teams was based on designing and creating a prototype that could carry weight by being propelled only by the air coming from one or two balloons and using only office materials (CDs, paper, duct tape, clips, etc.). Planning, coordination and creativity of each group were key factors to assess each work, which had to be "cost competitive". For example, using more materials or more time was penalized, while being able to carry more weight or moving through a specific distance and hit the target gave a bonus in the total score.

The teachers from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, Susan Luque and José Ramón Álvarez, accompanied the students in the competition and remarked their capacity for teamwork. Apart from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Oviedo, the activity was also backed by the College of Chemists and the Association of Chemists.