Experience This

In its first six years of existence the Student Design and Experiential Learning Center (SDELC) gradually grew to ten teams and over 400 students. That ten-team level has stood since 2006, but now we have a sudden growth spurt with the addition of two new student-run organizations. In late 2011 the Hydrogen Design Solutions and iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines) teams joined the center to take advantage of the administrative, technical and financial support that has helped the other teams succeed.

Hydrogen Design Solutions will develop an annual paper that addresses challenges that face the hydrogen community at large. The 2012 contest focuses on how to use local resources to produce biogas that fuels a tri-generation system that produces heat, hydrogen, and electrical power for eventual installation on a campus.

iGEM, which works with synthetic biology techniques, is the first non-engineering group to operate within the SDELC. The team has been on campus since 2006, and they work in an international collaboration to create an open gene library of standardized biological parts for genetically modifying organisms. Just last week the S&T iGEM student chapter's work was featured on the S&T website home page. They'll do almost all their work in Schrenk Hall, just two blocks from the Kummer Student Design Center, while getting their organizational help from the SDELC staff.

Stay tuned, gentle readers, there are more design teams on the horizon. Wonder if it has anything to do with the wonderful new Kummer Student Design Center that opened just 7 months ago. :)

Simple. Just offer them a chance to play in the sandbox.

Julie Whitehead's crew of girls and guys did manage to find time in their busy exam schedule to "pour" the sand/cement/aggregate into the concrete canoe form. The mixture is carefully measured and tested in the preceding weeks, and once the team is confident of the recipe's strength it's time to get dirty.

This carefully-orchestrated operation is more like adding a stucco finish on a home than "pouring" a foundation. The Miners mix small batches in a 5-gallon bucket instead of a noisy, smoke-belching truck; lots of artisan hands instead of 2x4s and a bull float. The mixture runs toward the "dry" side of things to keep the concrete from sagging, and they trowel on thin layers separated by composite reinforcing mesh. And it all must be done in strict order and very limited time.

Curing time? Oddly enough, 30 days, because no sooner than the boat is formed they fill it with water to keep it from drying too quickly. Like whiskey barrels and tobacco, concrete is best "cured" slowly for maximum value, to say nothing of arguably being better for society.

The great thing is the 2012 canoe keel was laid months earlier than in years past. That means they set an ambitious goal, started early, stayed close to the schedule, and will have lot more time to finish out the details in late January once the canoe emerges from the mold.

Did we mention that SDELC shop manager Richard Dalton built an adjustable-height steel work platform for the team? Soooooooo much better than the old 2x4 and plywood frames of the past 30 years!

p.s. Special thanks to photographer Brad Rupert for covering this mayhem!

With apologies to Garrison Keillor, it's actually been a quiet couple of weeks in Rolla, but looks can deceiving.

Things pretty much dropped off after dead week, final exams and winter graduation, but a few workshops were still humming along as if staffed by Santa's elves. The Concrete Canoe Team held their annual "mix fest" (more on that in the next story) right in the middle of exams, and the Formula SAE team hatched their new chassis just before Christmas.

Chief FSAE engineer Nick Schwiessguth reports "we got the car on the ground during finals week, a month sooner than last year. Most tolerances and clearances checked out fine but several minor issues popped up during the assembly process. We've made more overall progress on other components, such as suspension, that will give us extra time to tweak designs and avoid rushing the project. Fortunately fixes can now be made prior to first drive."

"We've shaved about 2 lbs off of the the chassis weight. That may not seem like much, but at our level of competition every ounce counts. The great thing is the chassis is much stiffer than 2011, and that'l translate directly into better handing."

"Thanks to all those who have helped in the shop this semester and thanks to all the alumni and faculty for your support."

with apologies to the original authors, who are surely spinning in their graves...........

T'was the night before Thanksgiving, when all through the shop
Not a tool was stirring, not even a mop.
The ratchet straps were hung on the cages with care,
In hopes that equipment we'd move would always stay there.

The students were gone, all snug in their homes,
With visions of CAD programs deep in their bones.
Their dads with their TV remotes,
Their moms ready on Black Friday sales to dote.

From the Kummer Center sidewalk there arose such a clatter,
Dr. Hirtz figured it must be the Ford's diesel rattle.
Up from his keyboard he stretched to see
The university's old forklift start to wheeze.

When, what to his wondering eyes should appear,
But a massive flatbed sleigh with two hustling students and an oversized elf.
With a driver so taciturn he knew in a moment,
It must be Richard, the Kummer Center machine shop docent.

With just hours to go before they'd leave for a weekend adventure
If they met with an obstacle, they just got a bigger hammer.
More steady than excited Richard shouted,
And called them by name.

"Now Adam! Now Jed! Now James and Nick, let's unload this stuff!
C'mon, Bob, get off your butt!
My dogs got into the house again, so I must leave,
Or Christy my stuff will heave!"

"Robert and Kathy Williams put up the dough,
So S&T design team students could know.
And follow in the Miner footsteps of those,
Who've worked to ease the world's woes

The drizzle on 10th Street outside couldn't dim the shine,
Of wondrous mills, welders, a sandblast booth and lathes so fine.
Sanders and grinders, and even a huge band saw,
Will on Monday fill students with awe.

And then, in a twinkling, heroic Richard sat
Astride a puffing forklift so fat (ed. the forklift, not Richard)
He was dressed all in jeans and his St Pat's sweatshirt
Which by now was covered in grime and dirt.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
He filled all the spaces, then turned with a jerk.
And realized that the long-hoped-for CNC mill
Would fit perfectly next to the drills.

He raced back to top off his rig, and got the receipt
To make sure Susan wouldn't put fire on his feet
But he was heard to exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,
"OK, now the students have what they need to do it all right!"

"Merry Christmas (in November), and to all a good night!"

Wander into the new Kummer Student Design Center on a fall Saturday evening and you'll find the lights on, music playing and tons of work getting done.

We did just that the other night and found the Human Powered Vehicle Team has already welded up their first 2012 bike frame, and the Koenemann Innovation suite has nearly a dozen students huddled around design computers working on projects ranging from Baja frame and suspension designs to who-knows-what.

The Kummer Student Design Center has barely switched from Open House mode to a real manufacturing center, and already uber-shop manager Richard Dalton has built new production tables and platforms that provide design teams with heretofore unheard-of flexibility. The best example of this is the massive new steel platform for the Concrete Canoe Team. In the old shop the canoe's entire gestational period was spent on a fixed wooden platform that everyone else had to work around. Now the rig has adjustable height, is easily broken down into manageable sections, and has big honkin' WHEELS! That means it can be rolled into the composites lab for sanding/staining, and concrete dust and splatter will be all but eliminated! Christmas in November!

We kid the folks at UM-Columbia from time-to-time, especially about engineering-related topics.

We ARE proud to call them our friends, as they have partnered with us on Solar House, Engineers Without Borders conferences, and even loaned us some folks to travel with the Solar Car Team.

They've really saved the Formula SAE team's bacon of late, arranging for the Miners to use the Faurot Field parking lot to test their autocross car.

Now there's a serious disturbance on the force, because Mizzou is leaving the Big 12(?) for the SEC..

We see a few issues of concern with this move. How will the Football Tigers recruit in Texas? Will Mizzou fans go to games in Florida and not come back? Will Mizzou players and coaches have to learn to speak with a drawl? Have to drop the "g" from all words ending in "ing? Learn to love NASCAR? How will they recruit in states where most athletes couldn't get in to Mizzou? And who will KU lose to in November?

On the upside it's a win-win for both sides. There'll be lots of TV revenue. Another plus? The SEC's average football graduation rate will positively soar. Some would say the SEC will get the better of the deal..........

S&T EWB president Grace Harper is just gushing over the success of the EWB-USA Midwest Regional Conference, held at S&T this past weekend.

110 attendees from nine university teams, three professional chapters, and the MU School of Public Health gathered for a series of presentations on program quality, fundraising, recruitment, report writing, and all the other mundane activities needed to make these overseas trips possible. Technology-focused breakout sessions took up a good part of the second day, where students and faculty (even from KU!) shared some "lessons learned" from previous trips. Speakers covered everything from rebar-bending, scaffolding, insulation requirements for sewage systems, the ins-and-outs of bio-sand filters, and especially the role the local population plays in these projects' success.

EWB-USA Executive Director Cathy Leslie presented the S&T chapter with the Midwest Region Premiere Chapter Award that recognizes excellence in EWB-USA projects and highlights projects that deliver high quality, sustainable solutions to help meet the basic needs of partnering communities abroad.

Grace says "this award recognizes chapters' projects and technical design, outreach/PR, collaboration with professional chapters, fundraising events, and how we improved since the past year. It allows us to to compete with the other regional winners for the national premier chapter award, which will be announced in March, 2012."

One S&T student commented that "the whole weekend people RAVED so much about S&T, the conference, our projects, and the award, it was almost embarrassing."

Hey, if it's the truth, why be self-consious?

Each of the ten SDELC teams pretty much marches to the beat of their own drum. Students elect their own leaders, develop designs and strategy, and head off to competition on their own.

But what happens when a team has the proverbial (and common) "Oh, Crap!" moment? They run screaming to their faculty advisor and beg for technical help. Yes, each team has an official staff or faculty advisor who provides the professional evaluations that tell the team "No, that'll be fine", "Have you considered this?", or "Yep, you guys are REALLY up a creek this time!" Advisors are like outside technical consultants who have the authority to take a team member's access away, or worse yet, rescind a team's credit cards.

Right now we'd like to recognize Randall Lewis, BAJA!!! SAE team advisor, who has just been named the Miner Alumni Association's 2011 Outstanding Student Advisor!

Randall's had his hands full with this bunch, who only got into action in 2006. Getting a team off the ground is much harder than keeping an eye on a decade-old group that has smoothed out its operations. BAJA!!! is finally past their teething period and coalescing into a smooth-running operation, so we look for great things from them this year. And a lot of that credit goes to Randall.

Randall was feted for sacrificing his own time, helping with sophisticated CNC programming, and otherwise riding herd on the group. Students say "Randall is always busy in his shop teaching or preparing labs or helping students or running machines, but always makes time to help us. He really sacrifices a lot us, including many late nights."

Did we mention that team advisors are strictly volunteers? Typically no reward but for the eternal gratitude of the students who drive them nuts. And that's why we're tickled to see that several BAJA!!! students took the time to nominate Randall for this award.

Richly deserved!

SDELC student design teams travel all over the world, but mostly they use design center vehicles to see the four corners (literally) of the Lower 48.

Three of the center's four vehicles are pushing 200,000 miles and with no plans (or funds) to replace them anytime soon, Saturday's ceremony got everyone really excited!

Doron Shapiro (ME'84), a senior product development engineer at Hussmann Refrigeration, drove down from STL to hand over the keys for a brand-new-looking 2001 Mazda pickup truck to students spending Saturday working on their projects. Doron wanted to find the truck " a new home" and S&T's development office figured the design teams were a perfect match!
The Mazda will be a much more fuel-efficient than our dually pick trucks or 10-passenger vans for running local errands or racing to St. Louis to grab that must-have-today part. Thanks, Doron, it'll save us much-needed cash, and we promise to take good care of it!

S&T runs in Doron's family. His sister Yoelit Hannah Hiebert is an EE'84 grad, her husband Greg an '82CSci alum, and their son "J.J." is a prospective S&T student.

Did we say the students were excited about having a new vehicle? You betcha! No sooner than Doron had removed the license plates that Chris Ferguson bundled some friends into the cab and took a test drive. As we watched the tag-free vehicle heading down the street, we thought "this could be fun! Where can we find a campus cop right away?"

No such luck. Maybe next time, Chris!

The Kummer Student Design Center has a lot of incredible little features tucked away here and there. A separate electronics room, and even nearly identical welding and composites bays. The smallest, and maybe coolest, is the Virtual Innovation Suite (below) where teams can communicate "face-to-face" with their sponsors, customers and even other schools.

The Advanced Aero Vehicle Group's rocket team is probably the first to use the high-tech room, as today they had the first of several conferences with event-sponsor NASA officials located in Huntsville, Alabama. The University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) involves projects that travel hundreds of miles and hour, are not necessarily guided, and on rare occasion go BOOM! NASA stresses safety in everything they do, and one way is to check on every aspect of a team's design plans.

Note: The definition of Karma: What happens when one team's parents sit in the event stands and prattle on about THEIR child's rocket, how well it is designed, and how it is the OBVIOUS favorite to win the event. Only to have the rocket vaporize on the launch pad.