If this team had a motto, it would be: “We can do it.” Five civil engineering students in September spent six hours at Baltimore-Washington International Airport transforming 42 cases of beans—that’s 1,008 cans—into a replica of one of Baltimore’s iconic blue and white water taxis.
Why? The edifice was part of Baltimore’s “CANstruction” competition, which challenges teams of engineers, artists, architects, and students to build structures out of cans of food, later donated to the Maryland Food Bank. Over the past seven years, more than 75,000 pounds of food have been donated.
Johns Hopkins sophomore Awoenam Mauna-Woanya enjoyed the opportunity to support a good cause as well as put classroom-learned skills to work. “This allowed me to practice the engineering design process from defining the task, doing research, and brainstorming ideas to testing our final idea,” he says. “On a small scale, this is equivalent to projects that I will be given in the future.”