More Inside:Alumni Feature 2Advanced Aero Vehicle 2 GroupRobotics 2Solar Car 3Baja SAE 3Solar House 3In memoriam 3Goodwin Scholarship 4Formula SAE 4Human Powered Vehicle 5Concrete Canoe 5Donor Recognition 5Steel Bridge 6Engineers Without 6 Borders

Kummer Student Design Center Dedication

On May 20th Chancellor Jack Carney dedicated the new Kummer Student Design Center and hailed the privately-funded facility as a place that “will become known as a center of innovation and transformation.” The ceremony celebrated the opportunities the building will offer Missouri S&T students, and honored the donors who brought this long-planned structure to completion. Fred CE‘55 and June Kummer, whose generous gift moved the project to reality, were honored along with other key donors at a private luncheon preceding the public dedication. Chancellor Carney called donors Bob Brinkmann CE‘71, Dick Arnoldy CE‘69, and Barry Koeneman CE‘70 the ‘three wise men’ for spearheading the project, and recognized Mike Bytnar ME‘68, MS Egmt‘73 as well as the Sunderland Foundation, whose support all helped make the facility possible.

Jonathan Sanders, a member of S&T’s Human-Powered Vehicle Team, gave the attendees a moving speech about the opportunities that design team experience offers Missouri S&T students. He praised the Student Design and

STUDENT DESIGN & EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CENTER

Summer 2011

Newsletter

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Robotics

2011 was a breakout year for the S&T Robotics Team. The Miners far exceeded their previous efforts at the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition. Jomegatron traveled nearly sixty yards, eight times farther than the team’s previous best and good for eighth place in the autonomous challenge. Overnight they had to scrap half their drive system that drew too much power and devise a simple and inexpensive mechanical system that performed flawlessly. Mechanical engineering student Chris Painter said “interacting with other students to solve problems helped strengthen my leadership skills and improve my understanding of the other engineering disciplines involved on my team”.

Alumni Feature

Ryan Thornton (EE’03), head e l e c t r i c a l engineer on S&T’s first solar house p r o j e c t , says “My time on the Solar House Team was the greatest experience of my entire college career. It taught me most of the important non-classroom skills that are vital to an engineering career.”

“I think the experiences and the passion you feel working on a project like this really comes through when you interview for your first job. I have conducted interviews when an applicant had a design team background and you could tell they really participated. It is almost as good as work experience. Design team experience and enthusiasm will always set you apart when you are up against a lot of new candidates with similar education.”

“Looking back, probably my best experience was the independence we had. We made a lot of decisions about how systems would work and made sure they operated. Our solar house advisory panel was great! They would let us know if we were going to do something completely stupid but for the most part just coached us on what we needed to know and the rest was up to us.”

Advanced Aero Vehicle Group

The aero team flies two projects annually, the heavy-lift airplane and a mile-high missile.

At the NASA-sponsored University Student Launch Initiative “We overcame numerous equipment failures to make the rocket fly great”, said team leader Dave Althuis. “Our strategy was to concentrate on the $5,000 payload prize, and ignore some of the subjective events. Our electronics group did an amazing job of building the circuits from scratch, but a defective IR sensor cost us in the rankings. The rocket still returned to earth in the upright position, just as required by NASA flight rules. We won the “best looking rocket award” for the third time in four years.”

At the Marietta, Georgia SAE Aero fly-off event the S&T AAVG airplane team took top design report honors. One judge said “Great job on the report. It

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Solar Car

Final exams, graduation, and the tragic death of freshman team member Erick Cummings decimated the Solar Car Team, forcing them to compete with

a crew of just five Miners at the Formula Sun Grand Prix solar car track race. S&T recruited valuable extra hands from the Principia (IL) College Solar Car Team for Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s centennial celebration of the Indianapolis 500. The team used the event to test design modifications and train rookie team members, but now-retired Solar Miner VII suffered problems on the track’s Formula One circuit. A manufacturing error caused a wheel spindle to fail and it took an all-night partnership with a kindly local machine shop got the car back in shape and turning fast laps. Another issue caught up with the team late in the three-day race. Dan Leafblad says “Our new wheels didn’t arrive before the race so we couldn’t keep a fresh set of tires at all times. That cost us a lot of time and led to a high-speed blowout that caused SMVII to spin out. The sideways torque shattered the car’s kingpin, knocking us out just hours before the race ended. We were pretty disappointed at our

Baja SAE

S&T’s off-road racing team had a pretty stiff test at SAE-Birmingham, Alabama in late April. Torrential rains turned the endurance course into car-swallowing mud bogs, and everyone kept an eye to the sky for tornadoes that ravaged towns in central Alabama. The Miners still managed to be one of the few cars running at the end of the four-hour race.

performance but we learned a lot that we’ve already changed in the design for 2012.”

“The good news”, adds Dan, “is next year all teams have to run with less-powerful but cheaper

cells. That should ease our funding challenges, but it’ll be tough squeezing as much performance out of the new car. We’re already designing the next car based largely on what we learned in Indianapolis. We’ve developed new designs, but we have our work cut out for us. It’s less than one year before the next road race.”

Solar House

The Miners are sitting out the 2011 Solar Decathlon and concentrating their efforts on refining their home automation system. They’ll look for strategy ideas by scouting the Washington competition in September. Director of design and construction Ben Brannon says “we’re focusing on design documentation, our Achilles’ heel in past events, to make the 2013 design proposal as strong as possible.

In memoriam:

Freshman Erick C u m m i n g s joined the solar car team during his first semester and quickly found a home on

the project. He became a valued member of the Solar Miner VII crew, growing quickly in confidence and skill. As a freshman he was excited to be named to the 2011 Formula Sun Grand Prix race team, but sadly Erick passed away shortly before the race, leaving behind many new friends. The team members are dedicating the 2012 racing season to his memory and send their sincerest condolences to his family.

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Formula SAE

S&T competed in just one 2011 FSAE event, but a blown engine just days before FSAE California disrupted their timetable. At competition the Miners lost valuable time to a nagging muffler issue that delayed passing tech inspection, a setback that cost them time in dynamic events. S&T slipped to 5th in autocross and skid pad when they overlooked the proper suspension set up, but their development and faith in their aero designs of the past eight years really paid off with outstanding lap times. It also seems that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery as the top four U.S. teams all ran ground-effects packages, and the concept is finally gaining the respect and acceptance of race officials.

Alec Surratt proved S&T had the best car by scorching the course to the day’s fastest endurance race lap by a full second and nearly two seconds faster than the eventual endurance race winner, a huge gap at FSAE events, but officials pulled the car from the race when the low-slung oil pan took a

hit from a bump on track and sprung a leak.

Chief engineer Tamas Erdos summed it up best when he said “we had the fastest car on the track, but we let a few small details affect what could have been a top-three finish in a competetive field of more than 60 teams”

The 2011 FSAE team was a superb example of how a great team works well together. Outgoing team leader Zach Lagrone gushes “This has been the most incredible, sleepless and learning-filled year of my life! The team has made a major impact on my life over the past four years and I think it’s an experience everyone can benefit from. I look forward to the upcoming year and being a constructive member of our alumni base.”

Goodwin Scholarship

Civil, architectural and environmental engineering student Charles Wright is the 2011 recipient of the Charles Henry Hammerstrand Goodwin Scholarship. Charles is a non-

t r a d i t i o n a l student who has been part icularly valuable to S&T’s Solar House Team. He has a number of skills the

typical undergraduate student does not possess and is eager to share his experience with the younger students. He’s a member of the Tau Beta Pi and Kappa Mu Epsilon honor societies and says “My passion is to move the world into renewable energy and greater efficiency. “I returned to college at age 40 because I wanted to make more of a contribution in the field of sustainable energy and sustainable living in general. Joining the Missouri S&T Solar House Team was a perfect fit for me, as this team strives for and exemplifies the drive for a sustainable future. For me, these are all worthy endeavors and a great way to start my career for the next 20 years.”

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Concrete Canoe

The S&T Concrete Canoe Team continued last year’s paddling improvements, taking 3rd place in the regional races despite encountering severe structural problems with the canoe. The James Bond-themed From Rolla With Love craft developed some serious cracks just before competition, fissures that got worse as the event went on. That cost the Miners points in final product judging, but when concrete patches didn’t work a healthy dose of duct tape got them through the races in fine style.

Outgoing team president Carolyn Pearson said “we took 2nd place in the design paper event and 5th place overall, right up there with the teams that traditionally do really well! With as many problems as we had I am so impressed with all we accomplished this year. It truly was a pleasure to be team president. The canoe team was definitely one of my very favorite things I’ve done at S&T! I’ll miss you guys a LOT!“

Human Powered Vehicle

The Miners’ design report for their other-worldly Titan human-powered vehicle took 1st place in the ASME East competition, shattering the ASME points record and putting the team in a commanding lead at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The bike’s electronically-activated landing gear made a huge impression on judges and competitors alike, but injuries and crashes chipped away at S&T’s lead, dropping them into 2nd place once all the events scores were totaled. Just two weeks later at ASME West in Bozeman, Montana, all riders struggled with frigid temperatures and constant Chinook winds. The Miners turned disasters into miracles however, overcoming two shattered front forks to stay with the leaders, replacing the first one with a spare, then modifying an older component to make it fit, all during the wild endurance race. This frantic effort helped the team finish high enough in the dynamic events to match their east coast 2nd place finish.

We extend our deepest gratitude to the Kummer

Center donors:

Richard, CE’69, MS EMgt’73 and Nancy Arnoldy

Robert, CE’71 and Kim Brinkmann

Michael, ME’68, MS EMgt’73 and Joyce Bytnar

Kenneth and Marian Clark

Roger, ME’65 and Sandra Dorf

Douglas, ME’87 and Pamela Duchardt

Billy Gerhart, EE’61

Fred, CE’55 and June Kummer

Gerald, ME’65 and Miriam Kettler

Barry, CE’70 and Deborah Koenemann

The late Vernon McGhee, MinE’42

Robert, ME’55 and Tommie Oetting

David, EE’90 and Lisa Enke

Jerry Rich, EE’74

David and Ruth Robertson

The late Dr. Robert RussellPaul, ME’71, MS ME’72 and

Nancy Scherrer-----------

Caterpillar Foundation

ConocoPhillips

The Sunderland Foundation

Follow us on:experiencethis.mst.edu/

design.mst.edu/

facebook.com/ SandTDesign/

flickr.com/photos/ sdelc/collections/

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Engineers Without Borders

Erquis Sud, Bolivia

S&T’s EWB chapter is building more than just water systems in Erquis Sud. They’ve established close relationships with the townspeople so each trip is like visiting family. Students and townspeople stay in touch on a personal level throughout the year, even after S&T grads head out to their careers. Sean Schmidt says “It’s a really small community, so they definitely remember each of us when we return each year”. In July they made their 5th trip since 2008 to the Bolivian town to focus on several infrastructure projects, including an erosion-control system to protect the water storage tank the Miners helped build in 2009. The erosion prevention system uses gabions, steel mesh baskets filled with rocks, to line riverbanks and prevent the river from undermining the hillside on which the community’s water tank is located.

The group assessed the potential for installing surface- and waste-water systems, worked on completing a topographic map of the community, and gathered updated health data of community members to determine what projects the community thought would be most important in the future.

Nahualate, Guatemala

A clean water distribution system is the focus of the Miners’ efforts in Nahualate. S&T students will spend the end of their summer break building a well house, but the townspeople have decided no one should get well water until the entire system is complete and everyone can receive water. That plan will keep the community focused on a common goal and be fair to the entire population. They’ll use the EWB plans to lay the pipe themselves after the students return to Rolla.

Tacachia, Bolivia

The Miner EWB team returned to Tacachia in May to continue work on four projects: water distribution, bio-sand filters, erosion control, and ram pumps. The filters installed in 2010 were very popular with the townspeople, so plans are going forward to expand the program. They extended water lines to a new resident’s house and installed four filters at the local childrens’ home.

The distribution group accomplished more than they expected in their short trip, completing the pipeline to the children’s home, another line to the north of the settlement, and began the line towards the south of the community.

Steel Bridge

The Steel Bridge Team suffered a few “Murphy’s Law” issues at April’s regional ASCE conference. Zach Evans said “we lost a critical lateral support piece and had to develop a quick fix. There was no time to build new parts so we took a piece from a less-critical location to get us through lateral deflection testing, and hoped for the best.”

“Our timed bridge construction took just about 23 minutes, but when one judge put his weight on a stability-bracing rod it snapped, leaving us short two critical pieces needed to prevent the bridge from moving sideways. The bridge ultimately exceeded the maximum 1/2” lateral deflection test leaving us in the middle of the pack.”

“Only two teams passed all the events leaving us essentially tied for 3rd place with several other teams. The tie-breaker, which determined the last team to qualify for nationals, was construction time so we ended up sixth overall. The difference between third and seventh place was very close. Were it not for the missing pieces we may well have been on our way to the national finals for the 2nd time in four years.”

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was very well organized and I enjoyed reading it.”

The Miners had the usual problems. Every time they fixed something another component failed, but they got the important things working. The craft’s braking system worked fine and the Data Acquisition System (DAS) worked much better than last year’s. Actual flight operations, however, were a bit tougher. Rough spring-time weather meant the Miners headed to competition with no actual flight time under their belts, and once on site they had to add weight to fix a center-of-gravity issue. The extra payload caused the airplane to stall and pancaked the plane to the ground, but S&T’s hard work in the design and data areas still earned them 6th place in their class.

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The erosion control team surveyed the banks of the Palca and Tacachia rivers, compiling data that will be used to develop a system to protect the town’s limited farm acreage.

The ram pump group worked with local NGO, Engineers in Action, to get new pumps installed and pushing clean water throughout the town’s pipelines.

EWB team member Chiara Sulze said “I have never felt more welcome anywhere. On our last day in Tacachia the community had a celebration for us. A small band with drums and pan flutes played while all of us danced with the community members. We all held hands and danced in circles until late at night, certainly the most fun I had the entire trip!”

“I also learned a lot and have come to see the world a little more clearly. It brings me joy to know that I can make a difference and help improve people’s lives. While life in Tacachia is not easy there is such a great sense of community. There are many things that we can learn from them.”

Santiago, Honduras

This fall the team will test the flow rate out of each of three wells that serve the town’s 6,000 residents. They’ll model the entire system to find the best way to improve the pressure and water distribution, and deciding whether another storage tank, a fourth well, or both will be best for the community. When the system is built, most of the community should have 24/7 access

to water and no longer have to rely on large outdoor storage sinks for days at a time.

Experiential L e a r n i n g C e n t e r ( S D E L C ) as “a place w h e r e s t u d e n t s have the u n i q u e opportunity to take an idea, turn it into physical form, test it, refine it, and repeat the process.” Jon spoke of the pleasure of working with students from multiple backgrounds and disciplines, learning to exchange ideas to create innovative systems, and working with the public, his future co-workers, and potential employers. Jon said, “I’ve gotten to ride some pretty wicked fast bikes. In a nutshell, I’ve had a blast!”

To the Kummer Center donors Jon added, “You have given us the tools to usher in another era of innovation and excellence that we have striven to achieve, and to expand the program that has helped develop so many successful engineers. On behalf of my current and future S&T teammates, Thank you!”

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See how your favorite team did in 2011 at:

design.mst.edu/achievements/

2011.html

STUDENT DESIGN & EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CENTER

Student Design & Experiential Learning Center1051 Bishop Avenue116 Kummer Student Design CenterRolla, Missouri65409-1410design.mst.edu

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Team AdvisorsAdvanced Aero Vehicle Dr. Fathi Finaish

Group

Baja SAE Randall Lewis

Concrete Canoe Dr. John Myers

Engineers Without Dr. Richard Borders Stephenson

Formula SAE Dr. Hank Pernicka

Human Powered Vehicle Dr. Keith Nisbett

Robotics Dr. Donald Wunsch

Solar Car Dr. Cheng Wu

Solar House Heath Pickerill

Steel Bridge Dr. Timothy Philpot