What did you do for your last company team building exercise? Maybe climbed some ropes, passed co-workers through a nylon-cord spider web? How about turning a pile of scrap metal into a medieval siege weapon? Didn’t think so.

It sounds crazy, but that’s the kind of thing you’ll do in a program lead by Waltham’s Jeff DelPapa, who has the engineering skills to guide you through a challenge of ingenuity that will exercise a whole lot more than your typical kayak trip. Jeff is an expert at turning piles of scrap metal into awe-inspiring contraptions that have been used in TV production, music videos, art shows and more.

Jeff is a former member of the New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society (NERDS) which was an American team featured on the British television show, Scrapheap Challenge, (Junkyard Wars to us yanks) in 2000. After catching an early glimpse of the British concept, he quickly rounded up two other teammates in the Boston area who applied, were accepted and became finalists in the contest. Today, he’s turned The NERDS brand into a chance for regular Joes to build awesome weapons out of scrap heaps. Though the televised competition is over, Jeff has taken the basic elements of the show and turned them into an exercise anyone can participate in. Sure, you might use rope here, but you could also rip through steel with a cutting torch– something that might even make uptight Jane from Accounting or nervous Ned from H.R. relax and chip in.

One of the main goals of Jeff’s programs is “getting people to think in ways they aren’t used to,” which is certainly the case when a group of hedge fund managers are presented with a pile of scrap metal and asked to launch a pumpkin 100 feet. Though there are different challenges such as “transport a cup of water x distance without spilling it,” Jeff admits that for the most part “people like to throw things.”

If you’ve ever watched shows like Junkyard Wars, or been fascinated by catapult building on the History channel, then Jeff is your man. When he isn’t challenging office workers with the construction of projectile-launching siege machines, Jeff enjoys building his own recumbent bikes, and participating in catapult and trebuchet competitions. This summer he plans to help launch boulders at a condemned Mathworks building in Framingham with the Mista Ballista (after asking permission of course).

If you’re interested in signing up for one of Jeff’s programs, you can learn more from the NERDS website and email him at dp@the-nerds.org.