Illinois Tech Robotics Mach 2 Centrifugal Pumpkin Launcher Surpasses Competition at IIT Pumpkin Launch

The 10th annual IIT Pumpkin Launch was held on October 18, 2014 on the Ed Glancy Baseball Field. All IIT students are invited to create contraptions to see who can launch a pumpkin the farthest.

After 3 official rounds of launches, the winners were announced in three categories: distance, accuracy, and crowd favorite. The first place winner for the distance competition was Illinois Tech Robotics Mach 2 with a distance of 290 feet. The second place distance winner was Phi Kappa Sigma's Skull Crushers team, with a distance of 173 feet. The launcher Moving Parts was awarded the third place with a distance of 161 feet. First place for accuracy went to the Skull Crushers, who estimated their launcher could reach 175 feet and hit an actual distance of 173 feet. Second place for accuracy went to the Mach 2 and third place went to Moving Parts. The crowd favorite award went to the Mach 2 team.

Check out this video from Illinois Tech Robotics displaying the Mach 2 centrifugal pumpkin launcher they built for the competition.