Awards & RecognitionFaculty member recognized for dedication to students

Student overcomes technical difficulties to place in competition

2008 Bagley College of Engineering Student Hall of Fame Inductees

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Special Podcast Release    Nash Street
Walk up to any newsstand on country music row in Nashville and you will see headlines that read “Nash Street named ‘THE BEST NEW ACT IN COUNTRY MUSIC.’” The upbeat blue grass/country band is made-up of Mississippi State students. Daniel Hare, an aerospace engineering major and the lead bass player tells the story of their experience playing at the Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry, and how this small town band is making it big in the genre of country music.
Click here to listen.

Even with their minds filled to the rim with formulas and equations, some engineering students have found a way to maintain their outside interests. As part of MSU Quiz Bowl, one of the university’s newest competitive teams, these students are reaping the benefits of staying well versed in a variety of subjects.

“Quiz Bowl competitions challenge students to retain knowledge from many subjects including those not in their major,” explained Paul Kimbrough, a biological engineering major and team co-founder. “Once students get past the survey classes of their undergraduate years and are completely immersed in classes within their major, it becomes easy to lose touch with other subject areas. These competitions encourage us to keep our diversified interests.”

Intercollegiate quiz bowl competitions pit school against school to see which team can recall the necessary information the fastest. Covering a variety of topics including trivia, current events and scholarly subjects, questions are often designed to lead teams to the wrong conclusions. This means participants must not only be well versed in many subjects, but they must also exhibit good listening skills and powers of deduction.

“Certain competitions ask really long, involved questions. You have to be able to focus, and that has helped me learn to think more linearly,” Kimbrough said. “The complex nature of these questions resembles the engineering problems we face in class, so not only does it help me in competitions, but having clearer thoughts also helps me in school.”

In addition to helping him get a handle on his thought processes, Kimbrough believes that preparing for quiz bowl competitions helps team members de-stress by offering them an outlet. While it requires that participants study, it is not for a grade and provides intellectual stimulation in areas other than those being pursued as a major. However, with half of the team and two of the three founders of the team being engineers, one might ask how the students balance their demanding course loads with this extracurricular endeavor. As one team member explains, engineering and quiz bowl are a natural fit.

“Engineers are predisposed to cramming lots of knowledge into their heads and recalling it at a moment's notice,” Matt Kettleman, team co-founder and a chemical engineering major, noted. “That ability helps us be successful in competition while competitions help us refine that skill to become better engineers.”