On Friday, Feb. 13, CCP Engineering students had the opportunity to show off their cardboard furniture, which they have been working on since before winter break during fifth, sixth and seventh bells. 

These pieces represent weeks of hard work, teaching the students valuable engineering skills such as how to develop a model, use CAD (Computer Aided Design) software and submit a plan for review. 

“I learned that there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, even if you think nothing else can go wrong, and that there’s always a lot to learn,” Liam Santer, ‘26, engineering student and participant, said.

Teams of four to five students worked tirelessly to construct the furniture, many opting to build chairs and a few groups benches, a new option this year. The builders faced many challenges along the way, such as perfectly aligning all the various components.

“Trapezoids suck when they are in a 3D environment,” Aiden Stevens, ‘26, engineering student and participant, said. “They don’t like to meet up with each other.”

During the demonstration, one person from each team was instructed to test their chair by sitting on it, wiggling from side to side and leaning back. Then, CCP Engineering teacher Laurie Cotton took a seat on the furniture for one final test as a crowd of around 80 students watched on. 

“I think I learned that design can sometimes trump compactability when it comes to making something sturdy like this since we got a lot of open space in the chair,” Aidan Mollohan, ‘26, engineering student and participant, said.

Overall, the cardboard furniture challenge was a valuable and fun learning experience for students involved. 

“My favorite memory was right before completing it,” Stevens said. “I had a moment where I was really zoned in and I was just working very hard.”