The drive to do something that’s never been done before is evident throughout alumni Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal’s careers. Best friends since first grade, they both attended NC State. McLaughlin graduated in 2000 with a degree in civil engineering, and Neal earned a degree in industrial engineering in 2001.
Better known as Rhett and Link, the internet duo own Mythical Entertainment and star in two award-winning daily YouTube shows, Good Mythical Morning and Good Mythical More. They recently launched a new show, Rhett & Link’s Wonderhole.
“The internet will not stand for a video featuring two guys simply chopping down a tree. They demand something new, something sensational. Hence a peanut butter axe.”
For the series’ fourth episode, they visited the Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics (CAMAL) on Centennial Campus to make their third childhood best friend laugh from the beyond. They enlisted students from the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering and the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering to build three different experimental axes to cut down a tree, an activity the three did together as children.
Students came up with three versions: a frozen axe, an axe made of a polymer that was 55% peanut butter and a titanium axe.
To see how the axes fared, check out go.ncsu.edu/peanutbutteraxe.
A Mythical Scholarship
In 2024, the alumni, via their company Mythical, established a full-ride, two-year scholarship, The Rhett and Link Engineering Innovation Scholarship Fund. Available to third- and fourth-year engineering students, the award will support students who demonstrate commitment to innovation and creativity in engineering, sciences, the arts, entertainment or a mixture of these disciplines.
“We hope it can provide meaningful help to students who are interested in the technical aspects of engineering but also have a desire to express themselves creatively, whether that be in direct innovative engineering applications or simply creative endeavors that require problem solving,” said McLaughlin and Neal.
“Balancing both technical and creative pursuits can require significant time commitments, and we think financial assistance will help the scholarship’s recipients focus more on cultivating their skills and less on figuring out where the money is coming from to pay for their education.”
- Categories:
