This story starts when my teaching assistant (Tzabar) came to a scheduled course staff meeting and said:

Tzabar: “I just got back from playing beach volleyball in the Technion Challange, and we won our first match”.

Me: ” Did you know I play volleyball since the 5th grade ?”.

Tzabar: ” O’ really?  there are these two guys looking for a third player… “

And the rest is history…

When I did my bachelor’s degree, the Technion Challange didn’t exist yet.  My first question was: what is this “Technion Challange” everyone is talking about? It is a Technion sports event where different departments compete against each other in soccer, basketball, beach volleyball etc.  Each department earns points for teams that registered (and showed up) and extra points for teams that won. Each winner gets a personal prize (in the form of a decent amount of money). The department which earns the most points wins the Technion Challange cup along with a prize for all of the students of the department ( in the form of a lot of money which in turn sponsors a standup comedy night or some other activity). Note that this is not just a single day but multiple events which take place in the course of a few weeks.

Our team consisted of Barak Barkai (middle) as captain, Ron Mazor (left) as the setter and me (right – I’m not that short, it’s the sand), representing the department of mechanical engineering.

The competition is in an elimination format, meaning – you lose = you are out. We had some very hard matchups, especially in the quarter-finals against Computer Science and Semi-finals against Civil Engineering. Fortunately, we won them all and achieved 1st place.

I am very proud to have been a part of this team and representing our department, and I cant wait for next year.  I also wish to thank all of the people who take part in organizing this event.

BTW Mechanical Engineering won the Technion Challange Cup this year.