Spotlighting outstanding young engineers

Benedict Bahner
ASME News Online

CHICAGO — While the Honors Assembly at ASME's International Congress and Exposition held here last month recognized the innovative ideas of seasoned professionals, a number of other Congress activities put the spotlight on the creativity of early-career engineers and ASME student members.

At the Student Design Competition championships, held on Sunday, Nov. 5, teams from 14 universities demonstrated their designs for a fishing rod and reel employing a "sip and puff" input controller, commonly used to maneuver wheelchairs. Switches mounted on each team's rod and reel simulated the controllers.

The second time's the charm: McGill University's second try during the Student Design Competition finals improved on their initial score.

The team chosen to start off the competition, composed of students from Montreal's McGill University, turned out to be the team that also took top honors during the event.

In fact, the team — ASME student members Dana Giacobbi, Pierre-David Letourneau, Alexandre Masse and Michael Tetreault-Friend — were asked to run their device again when a technical issue called into question the validity of their initial first-place score. McGill ended up doing even better the second time around, as an onlooker from a competing team observed, "Good for them! It proves their design works."

The team took first prize — $3,000 to the team members and $1,000 to the team's student section — for their efforts.

A member of the Oregon State University team prepares to go fishing with his team's device.

Steve Rikalo, Karl Schulz, Ryan Timmerman and Scott Waters from the University of Nevada, Reno, took second prize ($1,000 to the team, $500 to its student section) at the finals, while Seth Cardon, Billy McNair, Ralph Valadez and Joseph Whitehead from New Mexico State University rounded out the top three teams. The New Mexico State team received $500 and its student section received $250.

Another major ASME student contest, the Old Guard Oral Competition, was also held during Congress. Stephen Hart of Ohio State University won first place and $2,000 with his presentation, "Accelerated Bone Growth Remotely Induced by Magnetic Fields and Smart Materials." The second-place prize of $1,500 went to Matthew Teicholz of the University of Connecticut for his entry, "Investigation of Damping Coefficient of Elevator Guide Rollers With Magnetically Sensitive Material."

John Souza of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte took home the $1,000 Old Guard Competition third prize with his presentation "Alignment Issues in Articulating Disk Implants," while Matt McCrink of Boise State University placed fourth and picked up $500 for his speech, "Micro-Propulsion Devices in Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramics."

back to news & features