A friend of mine recently got assigned a very fun project in her Engineering class. I thought you guys might also enjoy a stab at it if you've some free time.

The goal: Build a "skyscraper" that is at least 2 feet high and has a 6x6 inch platform on top. It must hold at least 2 pounds on this platform. All of the materials have a "cost". Keep your design under $70,000.

Materials:
1 Sheet of Notebook Paper: 1000$
1 bendy straw (straws are 7.5 inches long, but only 5.5 inches don't have the bendy part): 900$ There is a 25 straw limit.
Masking tape: 600$ per inch
Paperclip: 750$

I'll make a diagram of my current design which I anticipate will work and uses about 51000$ (note, the less expensive, the better, as long as it works) and edit it in.

What do you guys think might be good designs? I love this kind of project ;D

Here is my current design. All of the beams are basically straws, the purple stuff is where i've wrapped it in paper, around the base and tip. All of the joints are masking taped.

If you just drew that in paint, i'm impressed.

Yes, that is my labor after 5 minutes of MSPainting

Cool stuff, Pseudoprogrammer! I hope once you get your final design worked out you'll share some pictures and info.

Is this some sort of freshman design project? If it is, here's my group's from a few years ago:

I'm gonna guess HS junior physics.

College freshman engineering design project.

I meant Pseudo I know as a fact he's not in college yet.

Very cool, but your cameraman needs to learn to stand still for 3 freaking seconds. I got dizzy trying to watch that.

I don't know the exact class. My friend goes to a different school. She's a highschool freshman and the school is an engineering magnet school. It's just a basic engineering class. Joists and columns and whatnot. Basic stuff. I've modified my design to a 4 legged pyramidal structure.