UT Dallas Creative Problem Solving Teams Carry the Weight in Global Competition

 

For the seventh consecutive year, creative problem solving teams from The University of Texas at Dallas performed well at the Destination ImagiNation Global Finals, taking three firsts, one second and one third against collegiate teams from across the country.

 

Most notably, one of the winning UT Dallas teams built a 50-gram structure — made only of playing cards and glue — and that successfully bore a load of 985 pounds.

 

The teams consisted of 26 UT Dallas students who participated in five challenges designed to teach contestants how to work together to solve complex problems in group environments.  Each challenge was developed around a specific theme — theatrical, structural, improvisational, scientific or technical — and more than 200,000 elementary through university level students from more than 56 countries participated in categories like DIrect Flight, CSI:DI, Round About Courage, Switching TraDItions and Card-DI-ology.

 

The UT Dallas teams received a first place in Card-DI-ology and DIrect Flight, second place in Switching traDItions and third place in CSI:DI.  They also performed well in the SuperMax Extreme Challenge category, receiving first, eighth and ninth places.

 

Students Megan Malone, Ben Connors, Richard Badgett, Hannah Frank, Bradley Wallace, Paul Ingram, Jordan Youngblood, Melissa Lent, Jonathan Coker, Ryan Henry, Nate Hannon, Meagan Olson, Anna Gray, Alex Palmer, Micheal Donaldson, Tyler Ratliff, Vincent Tran, Liam Skoyles, Benedict Voit, Heather Compton, Austin Edmiston, Yingda Bi, Felicity Lenes, James Fickenscher, Michelle Beche and Michael Wonser participated on the UT Dallas teams.

 

The competition took place May 23-26 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  Other collegiate teams hailed from James Madison University, Clarkson University, Baylor University and the University of Wyoming.

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