Marietta students blend destruction, fun

By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Call it computer geeks gone wild.

Enlarge photo

Brant Sanderlin, bsanderlin@ajc.com Members of the student chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery at Southern Polytechnic State University gave fellow students a chance to blend their old electronic devices for a $1 dollar donation. ACM chapter president Dave Hood (left) and associate professor /club sponsor Jon Preston dump computer keys into the blender.

Enlarge photo

Brant Sanderlin, bsanderlin@ajc.com Association of Computing Machinery chapter president Dave Hood, left, club member Carter Maddux, center and associate professor /club sponsor Jon Preston look over a what is left of a blended cellphone at Southern Polytechnic State University .

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Students at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta stomped on old computers, smashed printers and ripped open keyboards. Then they shoved the parts into two high-powered blenders and watched the whirling blades turn things to smithereens.

"Destruction is always fun when it's rampant," quipped freshman James Mahoney, 19, as he and more than a dozen students witnessed the computer carnage on campus Thursday.

The first-of-its-kind event was meant to help tech students relieve stress before finals next week.

"If you've ever used a computer, there are times you just really want to smash it, so we decided to go with that idea," said senior Dave Hood, president of the student chapter of the Association of Computing Machinery, the event's sponsor.

The group's faculty adviser, professor Jon Preston, suggested the students buy Blendtec's Total Blender after seeing it in action on YouTube. The student group paid $300 for one, and the SPSU Foundation picked up the tab for the other.

The 1,500-watt contraption can pulverize just about anything, from cellphones to golf balls. It gets tripped up with some metals and, as the students discovered, ink cartridges.

"We broke keyboards. We broke a printer. We broke one of the blenders," freshman Carter Maddux said. "I wasn't too stressed before, but I am quite relaxed now."

Students plan to recycle the powdery remains.