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Dr. Paul Hirtz, (S&T solar car alum, race official, and Assistant SDELC Director), shown here waving Michigan past Medicine Hat's start line apparently left his passport in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada the other day. While he is desperately trying to get his papers together for tonight's drive to the Montana border, we suggested he simply follow the solar car caravan to the border.
That way all twenty of us can swear we have never seen him before in our lives.
This weekend was Rolla’s annual two-day Summerfest party featuring kids’ games, soapbox derby races, beach volleyball, classic car shows, a beauty pageant, a fabulous Elvis show, and much more!
The ’08 event had a new and up-to-date element in contrast to the traditional attractions. Several Miner design teams took time out from their work to join folks from the St Louis Science Center and St Louis Community College to celebrate technology and the programs that S&T and other technology-based institutions have to offer.
Formula SAE crew members showed off the #92 race car and talked about their great season and the team’s hopes for the California race in two weeks. A few visitors got rocked about in the Baja team’s off-road racer, and the even luckier kids rode the HPVC team‘s utility trike around the festival grounds.
To quote HPVC aerodynamics master Andrew Sourk, “We made a lot of kids happy today!” Not to mention getting some of those lucky kids excited about the engineering behind these amazing machines and the importance of a technological education.
It doesn't get any better than this..................
We just got great words from Rolla businessman Kent Bagnall, a S&T alum, strong supporter of the S&T design teams, and lucky husband of former Miner Alumni Association Director Lindsey Bagnall. Kent is in Brazil with group of Missouri citizens and business people on a Rotary Group Study Exchange, visiting a variety of businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, etc. Kent wants our supporters to know how well our programs are known around the world.
He goes on to say:
"We visited a local university here in Campos today. It has a variety of focuses, one of which is technology. They have a eco-house with solar and wind power. When one of the professors found out we were from Missouri, he said that there is a really good engineering school in Rolla, Missouri".
While we have long (for 138 years, actually) known that S&T is a great school, the best part of the story is that the people from Rolla were in the other room, and the professor made his comments directly to the Mizzou guy!
Continue reading "Missouri S&T And Design Teams Get International Acclaim!" »
In the spring of each year S&T's design teams head out to various engineering events. Hardly a competition goes by that some school's team doesn't get upset at the judges for some perceived slight.
Interpretation of the rules, "curve balls' thrown at teams just for the (apparent) fun of it, or simple differences of opinion can make the events, uh, interesting.
While we post some photos of the judges at work, we thought we'd pass along an observation or two.
At the steel bridge nationals it became apparent that there is more to event judging than meets the eye. You see, judges don't volunteer for these events purely out of the goodness of their hearts (though many do), to get out of the office for a few days (maybe some do), or to get those cool orange polo shirts (probably none do). The also want ACCESS to their future employees.
They don't necessarily size up individuals, but they DO figure out which teams work together cohesively, because they want students who can contribute immediately in a TEAM environment that is the modern workplace.
For example, we were approached by a judge who owns a Florida firm that designs and builds (duh!) bridges, and he passed on the following:
1. His firm strongly prefers to hire students from the Midwest. In fact, he said (and we aren't making this up) they prefer the third child of a poor Midwest farmer, because:
a. They are used to doing without, so they don't expect much
b. They can get the job done with what little assets are on hand
c. When they grow up there isn't room on the farm 'cause of the older kids, so.....
d. They often head to Missouri S&T where they join a design team and become fabulous engineering students, 'cause they not only know HOW things work, but WHY things work!
What happens next? His engineering firm snaps 'em up because (insert drum roll here....) S&T gals and guys KNOW how to work and contribute from the first day on the job.
When we pressed him for more info, he commented that the big-name New England and Ivy League schools graduate very smart engineers, who, when presented with a real-world problem, don't quite know where to start because that haven't had experience on top design teams like S&T's world-beaters (he did allow that Princeton might be an exception to that rule, but that school is in New Jersey anyway, not New England). He also hinted that some well-known west coast schools whose location suggests that they might have a surfing major, "just don't get it".
In fact, this firm's prez wants to visit the Miner's campus to make presentations about the challenges of designing and building bridges in the real world, as well as to strengthen his firm's connection to S&T's best. Trust us, we'll be talking to this gentleman for some time to come.
We'll let our gentle readers form their own opinions on this issue, but here is some background that is probably common to all major design competitions:
Groups of fiercely dedicated students at universities all over the world spend the last who-knows-how-many months designing and building the car/plane/bike/boat that they think is the most brilliant masterpiece ever created. They carefully study the rules and regulations and find that there is some room for interpretation, so they do what comes naturally; they interpret in a manner that is SURE to be the way the judges would approve. No way would their Dew-induced trance allow them to mis-interpret the situation!
Now, fast-forward to each event's Tech Inspection................professional engineers (small p.e.) volunteer their time to work these events, and with the benefit of years in the business world read the same rules and interpret them THEIR way. If they don't agree with the greenhorn engineers, guess who typically wins?
That's why perhaps only 1/3rd of the teams pass Tech Inspection on the first try. For all the carping and kvetching that follows, the students typically resort to all manner of quick-fixes or borrowed parts, often well into the night, in order to qualify for the big races. While it doesn't make them happy, rejection at least lets them focus on the task at hand, because NOBODY wants to go home to tell their advisors they didn't at least get their feet wet (literally or figuratively).
Well, it has been a very busy winter for the design teams, and your (somewhat) anonymous blogger has barely been able to keep up with it all. Nearly a week at the St Louis Auto Show, an overwhelming weekend at the St Louis Science Center, and a wild three days at the FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in St Charles have kept the teams on the road polishing their presentation and recruiting skills. The students have also been the leading force in promoting the school's new S&T moniker. All this while working many late nights to build their projects for the upcoming competition season.
Now when we mention recruiting, S&T has three critical things to offer: an amazing education with the attendant high starting salaries, design teams/experiential learning, and ST PAT'S! Now who can argue with that??
The FSAE team, which calls itself S&T Racing, rolled out their blazing fast stable of race cars and drove wheel-to-wheel through the packed and alumni-filled streets of Rolla in what truly had to be the "Best Ever" parade of the past 100 years.
Solar Miner IV came out retirement and took its place as one of the best things ever to come out of that little town on Route 66.
Two-time national champion Solar Car Team, with many race alums in attendance, unveiled their redesigned Solar Miner VI, a smaller, taller, and less-sleek version its predecessors (silly rule changes!).
Continue reading "Design Teams Shine During S&T's 100th St Pat's Parade" »
The S&T design teams have long celebrated Engineers Week activities on the last weekend of February at the St Louis Science Center. The Society of Professional Engineers hosts many engineering-related displays at the popular venue this time each year, but this year was exceptional. The wildly popular BodyWorks 3 exhibit of actual preserved human bodies has been drawing huge crowds. The overlap of the traveling show means that larger-than-ever crowds have spilled out into S&T's display areas covering most of the facility's ground floor and our students made the most of the opportunity to showcase their incredible projects.
*Disclaimer: Some might argue that the huge crowds actually came to see our projects and then overflowed into the BodyWorks event, but we'll let others decide that.*
The SDELC teams have been joined by several other campus design groups. The Chem-E (chemically-controlled) car and Miners In Space (zero-gravity welding) were back again this year, and they were joined by Keramos, the student society of ceramic engineers, who have an amazing kid-friendly display of fiber optic-like melted candy and marshmallows frozen in liquid nitrogen. What better way to get kids involved in science than eating their projects?
S&T's student chapter of the American Nuclear Society set up an interactive (!) portable nuclear reactor just for little tykes. Now before you wonder what they were thinking, this "reactor" consists of more than 150 mousetraps and ping-pong balls, and which beautifully illustrates how a chain reaction works as the plastic "neutrons" fly in all directions with the attendant cacophany of clacking balls and snapping mousetraps. The kids LOVED it, especially little boys.
These events give our incredible students a chance to promote the fun and excitement of a technological education and career, and is our second recent opportunity to promote Missouri S&T's new name in the St Louis area.
About a dozen MO S&T students presented their projects at the auto show yesterday, and when the doors closed at 10 o'clock last night they were pretty whipped puppies. When the dome doors opened the automotive Miners were hit with a FLOOD of people that didn't let up until early in the evening. We counted 30-50 people at a time viewing our projects and talking to our crew, and about every 10-15 minutes a whole new group would sweep in. That's about 150-200 people per hour for the bulk of the 12-hour show!
It was a virtual tie between people who wanted to learn about the projects, and folks who wanted to know more about the exciting new S&T moniker! A bonus was that parents who came to see the new family sedans could let their kids burn off some energy squeezing into StreaMiner, or get rocked back and forth in the Baja car, compliments of Wes Thomas, Mike Warren and Brandon Leslie.
Stay tuned for an even bigger headcount tonight!
Bob just checked in from the St. Louis Auto Show.
Members of the S&T's fabulous automotive-related design teams, from Baja to Formula SAE, Robot to AAVG's amazing rocket, and the 60-mph StreaMiner bicycle are drawing large crowds of car enthusiasts to see what the Miners build. And we dare not forget our two national champions, good ol' Solar Miner IV ('03) and Fly-By ('07) the Human Powered Vehicle. Both are big attractions because people can actually get in them and drive them around (well, just a little).
The St Louis Auto Dealers Association has been fantastic to our teams, They gave them free display space, set up big signs to make sure the public can find these amazing students, and provided a great dinner buffet. That has become an issue with some of our gear-heads, though. Some of them go into vapor lock when faced with a tough choice: free food, or sit in a new Corvette; free food, Corvette, free food.........anyway, you get the idea.
Missouri S&T and its new name is a hit at the show. It has been a great PR event which will solidify S&T's new name in many people's minds. As we said before, it is a St Louis coming-out party for the new name.
Nearly twenty alums (that we know of) have stopped by to chat so far, and even bigger crowds are expected over the weekend. The Missouri S&T stuff is located in Corner B of the dome, and the show continues through Sunday. And there is lots of other cool stuff to see as well, so come on down!
P.S. It's reportedly a lot warmer in the dome than it is outside. That's good for an auto show. But domes still stink for football.
Approximately 40 state legislators from Jefferson City toured Missouri S&T's campus to learn about critical research taking place on the Miners' home turf, and they topped it off by meeting with Missouri S&T's highly-regarded student design teams.
The representatives, many of whom are on education and transportation appropriations committees, learned about work involving hydrogen as a transportation fuel, the transportation infrastructure itself, medical research into bone and tissue regeneration, and aerospace manufacturing technology. All of these are quality-of-life or economic issues which impact the lives of their constituents. On a national level they even learned of Missouri S&T's efforts to neutralize Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). After all, who better to do this than the folks who find more efficient and practical ways to blow things up? That's what Miners do, right?
Well, back to the design team members.........
One campus administrator told us that our representatives were suitably impressed by the research but were really anxious to meet the students who bring so much attention to the university's reputation by their success in international competitions and service learning projects. Kinda like the icing on the cake, you could say. The SDELC teams were joined by Miners in Space (zero-gravity welding), Mr. SAT (satellite prototypes), and the mens' and womens' Mucking (old-time mining techniques) teams, all of whom made a wonderful impression on the people who should know how important Missouri S&T is to the economic health of the state and the nation. Great job, all!
Maybe you've noticed, but many of the Missouri S&T design teams are all about speed. From rocket power to leg power, solar power to lawn mower engines, SDELC teams are all about converting power sources into forward (hopefully) motion. In recognition of our students' future contributions to industry, organizers of the St Louis Auto Show have offered S&T teams prime display space in the upcoming show, which runs January 23rd-27th at the America's Center and the Edwards Jones Dome (actually, we look at it as a coming-out party for the new Missouri S&T brand in the St Louis area). The exhibit will look something like this, where the projects were on recent display at the Havener Center.
Each S&T automotive-related team (Formula SAE, Baja, Solar Car, Human Powered Vehicle, Speed Challenge, AAVG's rocket, and Robotics) incorporates technologies that have market applications, from collision-avoidance sensors (Robotics) to composite body panels (Human Powered Vehicle), aerodynamic design (Speed Challenge) to off-road performance (Baja), and let's not forget regenerative braking and solar charging systems for various hybrid and electric charging systems on the horizon. The Formula SAE car is CRAZY fast, and if you can't figure out what rockets have to do with automobiles then you have obviously forgotten a certain Aston-Martin with missiles mounted in the grill (don't we wish)!
Anyway, Missouri S&T students will be on hand all through the show to talk about their projects and to get as many future gear-heads excited about the educational opportunities that abound right down I-44.
Did we mention that some of our our rather stationary teams such as steel bridge and concrete canoe help provide the roads necessary for our vehicles to go fast? They take what the learn in the classroom and apply it to solving future infrastructure challenges, 'cause we speed freaks really like safe and smooth roads.
Composite expert Craig George needed to build a windshield that matched the bullet-like shape of "StreaMiner", UMR's Land Speed Challenge vehicle. Lacking an expensive autoclave to heat and bend the clear acrylic sheets into the required curves, Craig designed and built his own forming machine around three aluminum pancake griddles.
Simply mounting the sheets an inch below the inverted heaters softened the material enough that it could be pressed and formed against a vacuum mold.
And the source for the suction power? A shop vac, of course!
UMR's Solar House Team hosted Missouri State Representative James O. Guest on a tour of the solar village and the 2007 solar house in late August, and Rep. Guest reciprocated by presenting a $1,000 check to support the team's project. 
Rep. Guest had plenty of questions about the applications of energy-efficient features of the team's latest entry in the Solar Decathlon, and discussed legislative efforts to promote renewable energy programs within the state. Responding to questions about developing wind farms on Ozarks hilltops, Rep. Guest said that studies indicate that only northwest Missouri has sufficient sustainable wind power to justify the investment in wind power technologies.