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

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)

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The winning WMU Stryker Challenge Team: Jolica Dias, Ben VanDyken, Ria Pereira, and Avin Castelin.

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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Congratulations to the 2011 Alumni Excellence Academy Award Recipients

Rich Bacon Mechanical Engineering Alumni, Becomes WMU Hall of Famer

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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