Senior Associate Dean Stephen Nash will present awards to the 60-second video contest winners at 1 p.m. Friday, February 23, in the atrium of the Nguyen Building.
Dozens of Mason Engineering students brought their creative inventions and humanitarian projects to life in entries to the 60-second video contest. Winners of the contest will be announced during Engineers Week.
Senior Associate Dean Stephen Nash will present awards of $500 and $250 to the winners at 1 p.m. Friday, February 23 in the atrium of the Nguyen Building.
The contest was the brainchild of Nash and Martha Bushong, director of communications and external affairs. "We are excited about what our students are doing, and we want to tell their stories,” Nash says. “Today one of the best ways to do that is through video. It’s the language of social media.”
Bushong agrees. “The videos are a way of community building because many students don’t know what other students are doing.”
When Nash and Bushong presented the video contest idea to Dean Ken Ball, he suggested offering two tracks. Students could either tell a compelling story about an engineering project they did or are doing at Mason; or they could capture viewers’ imagination by illustrating how “The Future of Engineering Is Here.”
A committee of faculty and staff selected the winners. The best projects reflected students’ ability to compress their thoughts into a concise, easy-to-understand product, Bushong says.
This is especially important in an age where a video has to capture people’s attention in the first 20 seconds, and many people watch videos with the sound off, she says.
Students can use their videos as an engagement strategy, posting them on social media or their organization’s websites, Bushong says. “We hope that this contest becomes an annual event, and the videos spark our students’ imaginations.”