‘Engineering Makes Scents’ a Sense-ation

Just one day before Valentine’s Day, visitors to the Center for Engineering Innovation & Design (CEID) were treated to the distinct scent of love in the air. But who’s to say that scent has to be the same for everyone?

To celebrate the diversity of love (and scents), SEAS hosted “Engineering Makes Scents at Yale” on Feb. 13. Attendees were given miniature Erlenmeyer flasks then let loose on a smorgasbord of 12 different scents ranging from Columbian coffee bean to ginger to sandalwood. After filling his or her flask with a base carrier oil to prevent evaporation, each participant became a fragrance chemist, mixing and matching the other aromatic oils to forge the most perfectly delectable bouquet of smells.

Attendees streamed into the CEID throughout the two-hour event, concocting ever more diverse scents and sharing their knowledge of what combinations resulted in the most pleasant fragrances. Combining vanilla and lavender, for example, was found to evoke the smell of bubblegum.

“The event was conceived as a way for SEAS to celebrate a different kind of creativity within a fun engineering context,” said Vince Wilczynski, SEAS deputy dean and the James S. Tyler Director of the CEID. “Then as more students came in, the act of sharing their unique creations took on the whiff of scientific discovery and a communal experience of searching for the most pleasing combination.”

It turns out that the particular scent in the CEID’s air may have been love — but mixed with a lot of science.