California student members bottle success at Student Design Contest

The challenge of the 2000 ASME Student Design Contest: Design a prototype system that would transport a one-liter soft drink bottle to the center of a target, and then fill and cap the bottle. The winners: Mychael Janes, Aaron Martin, Chris Santos and Rebecca Frank from San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Calif.

Twelve teams of ASME student members, each of which won the regional design contest in its ASME region, took part in the Student Design Contest finals at the Congress in Orlando, Fla., in November.

The San Joaquin Delta College team, winner of the ASME Region IX Student Design Contest, took first place in the finals, scoring 18,061 points. Contest points were awarded to teams based on the time taken to complete the task, the volume of colored water contained in the sealed bottle and the bottle's final position on the contest target.

The ASME Student Design Contest is always a popular event at the Congress. A TV station in Sacramento, Calif., did a story on the four-person winning team from San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, Calif.

The team from Region VIII's Montana State University placed second in the finals, with 15,094 points. Kevin Amende, Dustin Cram and David Story made up that squad.

Following closely in third place was the Virginia Polytechnic Institute team: Charles Graves, Michael Staton, Dennis Jacobs and Wayne Ketron. Virginia Tech, representing ASME Region IV, racked up 14,781 points.

Fourth place went to the team from Region X's LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. That team's members, Andy Dettmer and Mike Swanbom, scored 14,468 during the final tournament. Michigan State University's Bret Konkel, Mike Penner, Valdemar Losse and Ken Bowes, who won the Region V student contest, placed fifth in the final competition, with a score of 12,061.

The remaining teams competing in the finals and their point totals were: Region XII, U.S. Air Force Academy, 10,360; Region VII, South Dakota State University, 9,600; Region I, University of Hartford, 7,385; Region XIII, Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay, 7,187; and Region VI, University of Wisconsin, 3,300.

Two teams — Region II's New Jersey Institute of Technology and Region XI's University of Central Florida — did not finish their turn successfully during the finals, and State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/ Rome, from Region III, did not participate in the finals in Orlando.

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