About the Team
A Brief History
Team Urban Siege was founded in the Spring of 2006, although the name "Team Urban Siege" did not emerge until 2009. In 2005 the initial team (Matt, Chris and Jason) were all freshman at R.I.T. (Rochester Institute of Technology), Jason and Matt in Mechanical Engineering, and Chris in Environmental Management. The ASME group that spring (2006) held a watermelon launching competition, and Matt decided to enter, having built a small trebuchet several years before and wishing to build a more powerful one anyway. Jason joined in, and so did Chris, whom Matt had known since High School. The Melon Felon was the first machine built by the team, and it performed decently though not great at the Watermelon Launch. The following year saw Team Urban Siege build Jeckyl and Hyde as their first foray into advanced trebuchet designs.
2008 was when things got really serious. After Matt's trip to the 2007 World Championships of Punkin Chunkin in Delaware, the decision was made to build a full-scale punkin chunkin trebuchet and compete in 2008. This is when Medieval Postal Service came about, and Team Urban Siege started to become a well-known name in the hurling community. In 2011, the team built a completely new trebuchet, NASAW, which topped the existing World Record (2034') in it's first competition (in 2011 shooting 2316' for second place) and won the World Championships of Punkin Chunkin in 2012. Nick Wendel joined the team to assist in this venture (plus he wanted to get involved in punkin chunkin regardless), and soon built his own machine, a human-powered centrifugal catapult named the Buffalo Wing Slinger.
Along the way the team has built other machines, Janus being the most notable as one of the largest Rolling/Floating Axle Whipper (RAW/FEW) built thus far in the world (with a mere 5' long arm!)
We are willing to come for demonstrations, charity events and anything else that a trebuchet might be desired for. Contact us for more information if you are interested, we are located primarily in Western New York, though we also have a team member in the Denver, CO area.
