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Round Two of the Fourth Annual Engineering Bracket Challenge is On

March 14, 2019

Round One is over, now it’s on to Round Two. Help us winnow the bracket down from 16 to only 8, and win some prizes along the way.

Stephen J. Mraz

The votes are in and counted, so let’s take a look at the first-round action in the Fourth Annual Engineering Bracket Challenge.

In one of the biggest wins last week in the first bracket, MIT ran over the University of Minnesota (71% to 29%). Most of the other head-to-head battles were much closer. Cornell, for example, won over its opponent, Johns Hopkins University (56% to 44%) and the University of Wisconsin—last year’s winner, so watch out—outscored UCLA 53% to 47.

CalTech enjoyed a larger margin over rival Duke (60% to 40%)

In the second bracket, Stanford easily outpaced Pennsylvania State University (67% to 33%), the largest winning margin in this bracket. Princeton edged out Texas A&M (53% to 47%) and USC won over the University of Maryland by the same score (53% to 47%). In one of the two closest contests, Georgia Tech squeaked by Northwestern University 56% to 46%.

At the top of the third bracket, UC Berkley slipped by Harvard with the same 56% to 46% outcome. The winner of the 2017 Bracket Challenge, Purdue, started off on a roll, going by the University of California, Santa Barbara 79% to 21%; it was the biggest blowout of the Challenge so far. The University of Pennsylvania got by Columbia University 57% to 43%. And the Buckeyes of Ohio State University didn’t fare so well against archrival University of Michigan (71% to 29%).

In the fourth bracket, the University of Illinois sailed past Arizona State (625 to 38%), and the University of Texas did well against the University of Washington, 57% to 43%. Virginia Tech got out the big guns to overcome University of California, San Diego 67% to 33%. And Carnegie Mellon defeated Rice University 63% to 37%.

Now let’s see how they do in Round Two as eight more schools get eliminated. Click here for details on voting and winning prizes.

And by the way, Machine Design and the Design Group handed out three $50 Amazon Gift cards to lucky players Jessica S, John S., and Thomas N. They also singled out Stephen P. as the winner of a FitBit Versa; time to get exercising there, Stephen.