Sounds of music, dancing and laughter emanated through the halls of the William C. Powers Student Activity Center on Friday as engineers gathered to showcase their talents at the Dr. Ramshorn Talent Pageant.

As part of the Student Engineering Council’s annual Engineers Week, the pageant gathered student groups and engineering organizations across campus to compete to win the E-week trophy and the bragging rights that come along with it. All acts — ranging from rap battles to reenactments of the movie “Grease” — adhered to the event’s theme: fantasy medieval. 

Chemical engineering freshman Minh Quan Duong said he became involved with the event as a part of the External Activities Committee in the Student Engineering Council. He said that while planning the week, the council aimed to facilitate bonding between engineering students.

“The week is an opportunity for students from different majors and organizations to interact with each other and build a unified engineering community and school spirit,” Duong said.

For audience members like biomedical engineering major Nadia Toh, the informal and amusing nature of the show came as a surprise.

“I was confused and a little bit surprised at how different it was from what I thought it would be because (the performances were) quite silly and super into the theme,” Toh said. “It highlighted the goofy part of the engineering community and was a cool way for people to step away from their schoolwork and just enjoy themselves.”

BMESF, the biomedical engineering team consisting of three biomedical engineering organizations, put on the winning act, an original rendition of Shrek The Musical. Sanat Nair, a participant on behalf of the Society of First-Year Engineers team, said he felt intrigued by the attention to detail put into the show. 

“I was taken aback by how seriously people put this on to make sure everybody was having fun, the amount of people that showed up throughout the whole week and the different friends I was able to make along the way,” mechanical engineering freshman Nair said. “I would say that was really special.”

The acts presented were made by and for engineering students, Toh said, and thus, they included jargon and jokes specific to the engineering community, eliciting much laughter from the audience.

“I love the little engineering references made throughout the show that only engineers get,” Toh said. “I also like the dissing of other engineering majors just because that happens in real life, and it was funny to see it in a comedic way.”

For engineering and non-engineering attendees alike, Nair said the show served as an opportunity for students to see the diversity of talent and creativity in the engineering community. 

“It was cool to see how you can’t really pinpoint an engineer to a specific stereotype,” Nair said. “We (have) a bunch of singers, dancers (and) actors. It was eye-opening to see what it means to be an individual and open up what it means to be an engineer as well.”