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Grant Hall has temporarily been turned into a construction site and by Saturday morning the venerable campus venue will be transformed into scene worthy of the Las Vegas Strip.

An annual fundraiser for the United Way of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington, the Science Formal returns for a 116^th edition on Saturday, Nov. 3. Grant Hall has literally been abuzz for the past few days as students from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science have been hard at work planning, preparing, and building the decorations, including the extravagant centerpiece structure.

This year’s theme is ‘Casino Royale.’

While the project is focused on creating an atmosphere for the celebration, it is also an opportunity for engineering students to put their education to work and pick up some new skills.

"Construction Chair Shawn Kollaard has designed almost entirely the structure that’s being built,” says Stephen Boyd (Sc’19), Science Formal Convener.” That involves doing point loads, gravity loads, lateral design and much more. Many of our construction managers have done small scope projects but have never worked on anything of this scale, so they learned how to read CAD drawings, specifically how to build a structure like this and how to meet every specification to make sure the structure goes up, meets building codes, fire code, and every other stringent code that we have to follow so that we can have people on the structure.”

The project also has been a good learning experience in managing teams and fostering collaboration among the dozens of volunteer workers, Boyd adds.

Ahead of the celebration, Grant Hall will be opened to the public for tours on Saturday, from Noon to 3 pm. Entry is by donation in support of the United Way KFLA.

For more information about the Queen’s Science Formal, visit .