IRVINE : Students Gear Up for Spring ‘Odyssey’

Mark Hamamura and four other UC Irvine students are spending spring break this week doing something mighty unusual.

They are busy designing and building a miniature car they plan to enter in an international problem-solving competition to be held later this year in Maryland.

Hamamura, captain of UC Irvine’s delegation to the “Odyssey of the Mind,” admitted that the project is challenging but insisted that he and his teammates get pleasure from the hard work.

“I find the project very interesting,” the 19-year-old physics major said. “I get time to do something I enjoy and get to be with my friends. It’s like a (normal) spring break.”

The Irvine team will face teams from around the world in what is considered one of the largest academic competitions.

Each team will enter its own model car. The problem will be to design a car that can be powered by a tire jack. The Irvine team plans to build its 6-foot-by-3-foot vehicle from plastic piping.

Because the cars are judged on how well they operate and how sharp they look, team members plan to dress up their machine to resemble a space ship.

“We are thinking of something futuristic--a theme like ‘Star Wars,’ ” he said.

Hamamura--along with students Ashish Kalthia, Thomas Armacost, Imran Mynuddin and Benjamin Medvitz--began working on the car three months ago. They finalized the design and built a scale model.

They also have a full load of other classes.

In June, the team will take the invention to the University of Maryland, where the Odyssey is being held.

In addition to the car competition, the teams will be asked to solve a “spontaneous problem” designed to test how students react to unusual situations. One such problem might require members to take a deck of cards and build the highest structure possible.

For Hamamura, the whole competition is just as enjoyable--and more rewarding--as a week in Palm Springs.

“It’s really a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s great to see (the project) all come together.”