New Orleans team takes top honors at Student Design Competition

Benedict Bahner
ASME News Online

ORLANDO, Fla. — The design challenge for this year's ASME Student Design Competition was to build a bulk material transporter that could travel up and down a set of stairs and deliver the most rice into a container within 10 minutes' time.

The machine built by the ASME student team from the University of New Orleans was able to carry more than twice as much rice as the second-place entry.

Four ASME student members from the University of New Orleans designed and built a machine that successfully carried the most rice — more than 76 kilograms of it — easily winning the final round of the ASME student contest, which was held last month here during the 2005 Congress. The runner-up could manage only half that payload in the 10 minutes allotted.

The team from the University of New Orleans, which weathered Hurricane Katrina and made it to the competition, designed and built a transporter that carried 76,272 grams of rice to the receiving container. The team members — Dane Freeman, Stephen Kovacs, James Polk, and Randy Pearson — won the competition's $3,000 cash first prize. Their ASME student section received $1,000.

With a total score of 33,142, the students from North Carolina State University secured the runner-up spot in the design contest finals.

Teams from North Carolina State University and North Dakota State University placed second and third in the student contest finals, respectively.

The team from North Carolina State carried 33,142 grams of rice. The team members — Robert Dorosko, Derek Gaines, Herman Geci, and Noah Young — picked up the $1,000 second prize for their efforts, while their ASME student section received $500.

The team from North Dakota State finished in third place, with 32,688 points.

Thomas MacPherson and Jesse Sandry, whose prototype lugged 32,688 grams of rice to the receiving container for its third-place finish, represented North Dakota State at the competition. MacPherson and Sandry collected $500, and their student section received $250.

For more details, visit www.asme.org/students/Competitions/designcontest/index.html.

 

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