Kent Kraft/For the Gazette Students put the finishing touches on a "Spaceballs" themed statue during Wednesday's All-nighter.

HOUGHTON – A sense of organized chaos descended on the campus of Michigan Technological University (MTU) during the annual All-Nighter Wednesday. Electrical cords, garden hoses, and a variety of vendors spread throughout the main campus, as student organizations put the finishing touches on their month-long statue entries. Student and community groups also worked on the popular one-night competition. One-night crews started at 4 p.m. and had to be completed by 9 a.m. Thursday.

With the theme of “Through Ice and Snow, to Space We Go,” a variety of movie and TV inspired designs took shape throughout campus. One team created the ship, building, and crew from “Futurama,” while another looked to the snowy terrain of Hoth from “The Empire Strikes Back.” Not too far away from the squad directly influenced by Star Wars lore, a different team kept things light hearted as they recreated characters and vehicles from “Spaceballs.”

Many teams had aliens crash landing UFOs in their sculptures. Instead of little green men, however, these aliens were as white as snow. Other snowy aliens seemed to manage a safer landing with their chilled spacecraft.

The annual event typically draws hundreds of visitors in addition to Tech Students. Those looking for a bit of a warm up could stop by the tall fires caged in custom metal designed and built by mechanical engineering technology students. The firewood fueling the fires was provided by College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science students while the fires were tended by MTU alumni.

Chances to warm the hearts of others were abundant as well. Delta Phi Epsilon was in the middle of their 36-hour non-stop teeter totter campaign raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Members of Tau Kappa Epsilon were out with their “Cookies for a Cause” raising money in support of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital Cancer Research. The Guardians of the North Air Force ROTC hosted its annual pancake fundraiser with proceeds supporting leadership opportunities and advancement of academic and military careers of the cadets.

Winter Carnival is organized by Blue Key National Honor Society, a tradition dating back to 1934. Though the festivities are fun and exciting for participants and onlookers, the sculptures are also a display of great technical acumen MTU students are learning in their coursework.

This academic side of Winter Carnival continued into Thursday morning when the MTU Surveying Club helped document and preserve entries in the sculpture competition. They will utilize the school’s portable laser scanning equipment to capture highly detailed three-dimensional scans, and the resulting data can then be rendered into digital models to be 3D printed to scale as mementos.

Winter Carnival continues through Saturday