There were some blowouts and some squeakers in the first round of Penton’s Academic Engineering Program Bracket Competition. UCLA handily beat Baylor, 67% to 33%, and Texas A&M ran away from Drexel (70% to 30%). Purdue far outdistanced Stevens Institute (76% to 24%) and Iowa survived over Arizona State, one of my favorites (57% to 43%.) In what I consider an upset, University of Minnesota beat Carnegie Mellon (52% to 48%), but it was close, and in the Battle for New York, Cornell beat the country’s oldest technological research university, Rensselaer. Virginia Tech beat UCLA in what might be considered an upset, and Illinois (UC) handily beat University of Florida (61% to 39%).
On the other side of the brackets, Caltech ran away from Hofstra (78% to 22%) and Pennsylvania outdistanced SUNY (76% to 24%). Maryland somehow beat Ohio State, but it was a close call (52% to 48%), and Michigan beat Mississippi (67% to 32%), which doesn’t seem right to this observer. Georgia Tech, another favorite, won over Missouri S&T (77% to 23%), and NC State beat out UC San Diego (52% to 48%). Duke took care of Penn State (57% to 43%) and Texas won over Auburn (58% to 42%).
Now it’s down to 16 colleges and universities and on to Round Two. Be sure to cast your vote for the schools you consider academic leaders in the engineering field. Or play to win the prizes. Voting is open 24/7 through Sunday, April 10, at the AEC Information Page.