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WMU Takes First Place at SAE World Congress Student Exhibition Competion
L-R: Alan Meinecke, Alexandra Walcott, and Baxter Gill, the SAE team with the first place award.
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| El Salvador Spring Break for Engineers Without Borders |
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| Energy Challenge earns WMU Students $31,000 in Micro Grants |
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| Armstrong International Scholarship Awarded To WMU’S Shedrick Harrell |
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The Center for the Advancement of Printed Electronics (CAPE) at Western Michigan University was the Recipient of the FLEXI R&D Award |
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IME Team Wins 3rd Out of 298 Entries & Awarded $10,000 Prize at Accelerate Michigan Competion
Speaking from experience I am confident most would agree that backing up to align your vehicle with a trailer by yourself can be a frustrating challenge. Three students from WMU’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences came up with an idea to remedy this problem and it really paid off.
Winning 3rd place out of 298 student entries Dan Panozzo, Evan Maltas, and Joe Fodo were awarded $10,000 at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition for their “Quick Hitch” idea. The improved trailer hitch design is specifically made to help an individual connect their vehicle to a trailer without numerous attempts or the aid of someone waving back and forth in an effort to try and guide you somewhere close to the spot you need to be. The hitch telescopes and rotates 180 degrees making it a much less challenging task to connect to a vehicle. The innovative hitch does this without losing any of the strength of a regular hitch.
Dan, Evan, and Joe are all students in the Industrial and Entrepreneurial Engineering Program. Their product Quick Hitch, was developed in the product design course, IME 3010: Entrepreneurial Engineering II taught by Drs. Steven Butt, Tycho Fredericks, Azim Houshyar, Bob White and Mr David Middleton who are all very proud of the team’s accomplishment, additionally the Quick Hitch group collaborated with Dr. KC O'Shaughnessy, Haworth College of Business, and his business students to gain valuable market insight.
The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Copetition was held at Eastern Michigan University’s Eagle Crest Resort and the winners were announced Nov. 17th. The competition targets student concepts with longer-term business viability with potential to generate an immediate impact on Michigan’s economy. With more than $1 million in cash winnings, the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition is the world’s largest business plan competition.
L-R: Dr. Steven Butt, Dr. Tycho Fredericks with student team members Joe Fodo, Dan Panozzo, Evan Maltas, and CEAS Dean Dr. Anthony Vizzini |
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WMU Engineering Students Win Second Consecutive Stryker Challenge
A student team from the WMU College of Engineering and Applied Sciences finished first place in the second Stryker Engineering Challenge on November 11, 2011. Stryker sponsors this competition as part of their efforts to strengthen ties with schools from which they recruit engineering talent.
Engineering students from WMU, the University of Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Purdue built “contraptions” to deliver different sized balls to scoring positions in a timed competition. The competition rules were explained at a Thursday evening meeting. Student teams then worked non-stop to complete their designs for the competition held the next Friday afternoon. Teams were provided with identical raw materials to build their machines. Each team completed the same five courses to test the ingenuity of their creations. The WMU design featured an arm that could be lowered, raised, and extended via electric motors. A bucket at the end of the arm, also under motor control, could be tipped to deliver the balls to a target location. The design was cited by Stryker employees as being a particularly elegant solution. They also noted the excellent teamwork of the WMU students.
A different student team from WMU won the inaugural competition against the same schools earlier this year. Thus WMU is 2-0 in this event.
WMU faculty Damon Miller (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Fred Sitkins (Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering) were the team coordinators for both competitions. The winning WMU team members are: Jolica Dias (Electrical Engineering), Ria Pereira (Electrical Engineering), Avin Castelino (Mechanical Engineering), and Benjamin VanDyken (Mechanical Engineering)
Each student on the winning team received an Apple iPad2 and an internship interview with Stryker.
Contributors: Shaelie Lambarth (Stryker Corporation), Damon Miller and Fred Sitkins (WMU)
The winning WMU Stryker Challenge Team: Jolica Dias, Ben VanDyken, Ria Pereira, and Avin Castelin.
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The winning WMU Stryker Challenge Team in action. Mr. VanDyken is off camera to the right running the contraption motors (image courtesy of Stryker)
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One Saucer, One Cup, One Spoon, & One Marble
Makes for One Difficult Challenge
While on tour at the American Foundry Society (AFS) Dr. Sam Ramrattan, grad students AJ Oman, and Sean Derrick were shown an extremely difficult cast piece that for the past 30 years has represented the gold standard for green sand castings. Lenard Ivey, a master foundryman created it to add a twist to the standard test given to apprentices. It was featured in Modern Casting Magazine in April of 1979. The original test included the saucer, cup, and spoon. Ivey added the marble which debuted an additional degree of difficulty. Sean and AJ decided to attempt the challenge and to go one step further in their effort by improving on the cast. They modified the original design by using a more complex curved cup, a WMU embossed saucer, and a thinner spoon with a rose patterned handle. The result is an impressive display of their level of competency. The piece was finished by fellow grad student Jason Klein. Below 1: AJ Oman and Sean Derrick. Below 2: Side by side left, is their original model design setting and right, their casted piece. This illustrates the success of the team’s challenge.
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Promoting market diversification, SAMPE disseminates information about the commercial and industrial applications of material and processing engineering. These include land transportation, construction, marine, biomedical and medical, sports and recreation, and industrial applications. It is SAMPE's opinion that the well being and career development of its members as well as the industry by which they are employed requires that technology transfer be successful.
Dr. Vizzini along with the rest of the SAMPE executive board members, will supervise SAMPE's two largest North American Conferences: SAMPE Tech, October 17-20, 2011 in Fort Worth, Texas; and SAMPE 2011, May 21-24, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to the North American conferences, the cabinet will supervise SAMPE Asia taking place February 21-22, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur. Implementation of new international policies will also be directed by the members of the executive cabinet. Congratulations! |
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CEAS Computer Science Professor Dr. Ajay Gupta Wins Election
Congratulations to Dr. Ajay Gupta on being elected as the Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Parallel Processing. Here at the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences Dr. Gupta is also the the Director of the Wireless Sensornets (WiSe) Lab, and the Graduate Program Director. The IEEE Computer Society is one of the world's leading membership organizations for computing professionals. |
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"The school's program, launched in early 2010, already has produced numerous real-life results. One example: Two students reviewed a local company's overhead doors and the efficiency of door heaters. They provided design solutions that involved differential steam control valves and proximity sensors to automatically operate the doors. An initial investment of $5,100 now generates annual energy savings of $28,400. " Click on the title for the original press release. |
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Civil and Construction Engineering Department Takes Another Step Forward to Prepare Career-Ready Graduates
Founded in 2002, the Civil Engineering program at Western Michigan University has become the third largest such program in the state of Michigan. The Civil and Construction Engineering (CCE) department mission is to provide students the opportunity to obtain state-of-the-art engineering knowledge and skills through student-centered education whereas the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) mission is to prepare career-ready graduates. Looking at both the CCE and CEAS missions, Dr. Upul Attanayake, Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering, established a process in collaboration with the Michigan Concrete Association (MCA) to provide WMU CCE students to obtain the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Concrete Field Testing Technician - Grade I certification. ACI defines the Grade I technician as “an individual who has demonstrated the knowledge and ability to properly perform and record the results of seven basic field tests on freshly mixed concrete.” These tests are performed as per the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. The Grade I certification process involves two written exams and a performance exam. Written exams cover fundamentals of concrete and seven ASTM test methods and practices while the performance exam requires examinees performing seven basic field tests on fresh concrete as per the ASTMs.
“As future engineers, our students learn much more than what this certification examination is evaluated in my Civil Engineering Materials course”, stated Dr. Attanayake. ACI certificates are worldwide accepted. Having this certificate provides a competitive edge to our graduates to secure co-op/internships because they finish the coursework and certification during their junior year. Our students will likely not do field testing during their career but need to know how these field test are performed. State Highway Agencies, Contractors, and Testing Labs prefer students with certification because they can get our students directly walking to a construction site and performing productively. The experience our students gain as certified technicians and the contacts they develop with the industry will help our students secure jobs much easier than the students from other institutes, stated Attanayake. “By the time our students leave the college they are career-ready graduates”, stated Attanayake.
As the first step, 11 students took the Grade I certification exam on May 24. Mr. David Hollingsworth, Director-Technical Services/Training, Michigan Concrete Association, proctored the entire examination while several other certified technicians helped with proctoring individual practice tests and written examinations. With the help of MCA, this examination will be conducted annually at the end of the spring semester at Parkview campus facilities.
A student preparing to test air content using pressure meter. |
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