ENGINEERS FOR SALE: Last week’s SWE/EJC date auction raised money for charity while providing dates for some engineers. One engineer (above far left) did an uncanny Eminem imitation to raise his bids.

SWE and EJC host second annual date auction

They say that money can’t buy you love, but it can buy you a date with an available engineer. Last week, a crowd gathered in the Valley Life Sciences auditorium to shop for a date, support friends, and discover the hidden talents of fellow engineers.

The second annual date auction, put on by the Society of Women Engineers and the Engineering Joint Council, raised $1635 for the Oakland Children’s Hospital last year and contributed another $1145 this year.

For their dates, participants got tickets to the SWE/EJC-sponsored dance at the Mirage on April 24.

The event – part talent show, part beauty pageant, part comedy showcase – featured 10 girls and seven guys, including an ASUC senator, a belly dancer, a muscleman, a rapper, a department citation winner, an artist and an engineer whose claim to fame is eating six meals a day. And that was just in the first half.

The evening’s highest bids of $105 were fetched by Engineering Physics major Misha Leybovich and BioE junior Elisa Fanchiang.

BioE junior Ryan Doan did 10 pushups for the cheering crowd, only to be bought by BioE senior Peter Mastani, who must have been looking for a buff workout partner.

The event proved the stereotype about shy engineers isn’t true. Third year ChemE/MSE major Justin Edwards warmed up the crowd with a rap song. Sophomore Leyla Najafi’s sexy belly dance sparked a bidding war and Engineering Physics junior Mike Schou’s posterior was billed as his biggest “ass”et.

Schou said that participating in the auction killed two birds with one stone. “It’s a chance to find a foxy engineering girl and make some money for charity at the same time.”

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