Ten engineers are competing for the ultimate “Big Brain” title as they tackle seemingly “impossible engineering challenges” in a new US-based reality television series on the Discovery Channel.

The Kal Penn-hosted Big Brain Theory: Pure Genius is an eight-part series filming two teams of contestants creating and building solutions to tackle challenging real-life problems.

The challenges posed to the ten contestants, who live and work together during the series, include stopping a missile with a missile; building a personal shelter to keep a rescue worker safe from extreme wind, water and fire; and designing a robot that can tackle three Olympic events, namely a 100 m dash, a javelin throw and a standing broad jump.

The engineers would also have to design, engineer and build a machine to prepare a variety of food that a person might order and serve to masses of people in a public space, as well as design, engineer and build a simple way of extracting mechanical energy from a waterfall.

According to the Discovery Channel episode guide, the competitors have 30 minutes to develop a solution using their own intellect.

The challenges, which get more difficult as the series progresses, were chosen for their potential applications in development of real-world products.

The competition was also designed to “discover if America still has what it takes to lead the world with innovative concepts”.

Contestants had an opportunity to earn distinctions with inventive designs or practical shop knowledge, but would be penalised for display of tempers or ineffective leadership.

The winner of The Big Brain Theory would walk away with $50 000 and a job at Los Angeles-based water feature design group WET Enterprises.

The contestants comprised a rocket scientist who built haunted houses and has an IQ of 146, Joe Cravella; the ‘southern Martha Stewart of engineering’ 26-year-old Amy Elliot; product design consultant 31-year-old Alison Wong; Department of Defense engineer Andrew Stroup; senior mechanical engineer Corey Fleischer; spacecraft engineer Dan Moyers; graduate student, working toward a PhD in robotics, Eric Whitman; the founder of Artisan’s Asylum, Gui Cavalcanti; small manufacturing company owner Tom Johnson; and 26-year-old welding engineer technician Joel Ifill.

The judges were WET CEO Mark Fuller and Christalis CEO Dr Christine Bulbranson, with guest judges, including robotics expert, ‘BattleBots’ champ and Mars Rover designer Jason Bardis; Nasa JPL lead engineer for Mars Rover Curiosity in charge of entry, descent and landing Adam Stelzner; Nascar champion driver Carl Edwards; and Nasa astronaut on Apollo XI and second man to walk on the Moon Buzz Aldrin.

Big Brain Theory premiered at the end of August on Discovery Channel (DStv 121).