A multidisciplinary team of students placed second out of 28 registered teams during the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) District C Student Professional Development Conference held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 16-18.
Team members included Scott Quiett (mechanical engineering, Gettysburg), Lisa Robinson (mechanical engineering, Gettysburg), Don DeGooyer (electrical engineering, Great Falls, Mont.) and Brandon Smith (mechanical engineering, Amenia, N.D.). The team was advised by Jason Ash, ASME advisor and instructor of mechanical engineering, and Dr. Michael Batchelder, Center of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing and Production co-director and professor of electrical engineering.
The teams were tasked to design and build a remote-controlled (or tethered) vehicle to navigate a 7.5 foot by 12 foot course, surmount 4x4 pieces of lumber, collect seven rocks, deposit the rocks into a circular receiving area, and return to the starting area for a parking bonus all within a four minute time limitation. The title of the competition was "Mars Rocks" and was aimed at simulating rock-retrieving vehicles on the Martian surface. The School of Mines team completed all the tasks with only two seconds to spare. Only three other teams in the district were able to do this. With the second-place finish, the team is eligible to compete at the international competition this coming November in Orlando, Florida.
"This was a very impressive team based on their conceptual idea, design analysis, and realization of their vehicle. The competition was extremely tense with a four minute time-limit," Ash said. "It was truly a team effort by all members involved and a remarkable performance to witness. This is the ideal result of the engineering design process."
In addition to the second-place finish in the student design contest, the ASME student section walked away with a total of six awards at the conference. Sean Hayes (mechanical engineering, Eagle, Idaho) won second place in Technical Webpage Design with his overview of the engine rebuild process he just completed with a vehicle he is restoring. The ASME Student Section won third place in the ASME Student Sections Competition and also won the Kilometer Award for having the largest product of student attendees multiplied by the round-trip mileage to the conference. Additionally, Robinson and Quiett were each recognized with the Outstanding ASME Student Award for their high level of service to the ASME student section.
