The Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering & Applied Science talent show, hosted by Alpha Omega Epsilon, a professional and social engineering sorority, made a comeback for the first time since 2019 this past Thursday.

Various Watson student groups came together to celebrate their work and compete in a friendly competition to raise money for the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology Robotics youth organization. There were four rounds of competition, with a few activities in between. Stacey Brown, an assistant director at Watson College Career and Alumni Connections, Ashley Misuraca, a senior employer relations coordinator and William Schiesser, a School of Computing lecturer, judged the event.

“In the spirit of two major FIRST philosophies that any alumni will remember, I want to wish all the contestants the best of luck,” said Casey Ruth Anderson ‘23. “First, embrace gracious professionalism, where fierce competition and mutual gain coexist through respect and empathy. Second, it embodies the spirit of ‘coopertition,’ where teams collaborate and help each other, even while competing. Let’s celebrate not only the competition but the cooperation that defines all FIRST.”

In the first event, the audience was greeted by contestants representing various Watson student groups, including the Association for Computing Machinery, the Biomedical Engineering Society, ColorStack, Girls Who Code, Out in STEM, the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, Society of Women Engineers and Theta Tau, a professional engineering fraternity.

After a surprise appearance by Baxter the Bearcat, contestants answered questions about challenges in their field and the necessary skills for new engineers and coders. The second event — a round of musical chairs — was set up following a scavenger hunt for tickets. When it came down to the final round, Allison Cohen, the Biomedical Engineering Society’s director of fundraising and a senior majoring in biomedical engineering, beat out Vincent Lee, a senior advisor for the Association for Computing Machinery and a senior majoring in computer science.

The penultimate competition was a round of engineering and University-related trivia. From Watson to the Mars Perseverance rover, both contestants and the audience were tested on their knowledge of engineering and University history. The audience contributed a fair amount to this section, leading to many moments where contestants phoned a friend to get a stab at the answer.

The last event was the engineering challenge, where contestants in a small team were challenged to build a spaghetti and marshmallow tower.

After an anticipatory wait, the judges tallied their results. Watson Dean Atul Kelkar announced that Jordan Mayorga, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers’ corporate relations chair and a sophomore majoring in biomedical engineering, pulled ahead to win first place. He described his organization’s goals and the strong community it fosters.

“Our main mission is to uplift Hispanics in STEM, and mainly engineering,” Mayorga said. “But we don’t only uplift Hispanics, we want to uplift everyone. We want to get everyone internships, jobs or make meaningful connections that last, hopefully, years. Something that I would like people to know is that you don’t have to be Hispanic, you don’t have to be an engineer — just show up and just have fun with it. Another thing we do is also a lot of cultural events, a lot of professional events of course. We sometimes call ourselves a familia, a family. It’s a very tight-knit community, very welcoming.”