Engineering excels in regional conference
Utah State University students demonstrated expert skill and design by sweeping awards at the Regional Student Conference (RSC) for mechanical engineering.
They join fellow mechanical engineering students from all over the Western region at the annual conference was held at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo, said Adam Richards, mechanical engineering student council president.
The competition involved a design, oral presentation and a poster contest, Richards said.
“USU rocked RSC this year,” he said.
Junior and senior USU students took first place in Impromptu Design, third place in the oral contest, with the best technical support, he said, and first and second places in the poster contest.
“The most exciting part was the Impromptu Design contest, Richards said.
“There were 17 teams of four. We had 30 minutes to design a mechanism that would protect a hearing device when it was dropped into enemy territory,” he said.
An egg simulated the hearing devices, and after each team finished their design, the dropping started, he said. Each mechanism was dropped up to three times until the egg broke.
“Points were also given for writing a good summary of the engineering principles used in the design,” he said. “I think it was our technical paragraph that moved us up to tie for first place. So we were in a ‘sudden death drop off.'”
Ahmed Habtour, a junior in mechanical engineering, said the title of his presentation was “The Performance of Anode Supported Planner Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.”
Jared Tonioli, a junior in mechanical engineering, said Habtour’s presentation was based around research to reduce the size of a fuel cell.
“The university gained a lot of recognition in the conference. It was a great experience and I highly recommend getting involved,” Habtour said.
Amy Hintze, a senior in mechanical engineering, said, “The Regional Student Conference allows us to meet our soon-to-be colleagues and/or competitors in industry from other schools, make connections and participate in a little friendly competition.”
Participation at the RSC also earns mechanical engineering students points for the year-round Ingersoll-Rand competition, Richards said, and the winners are announced at the conference.
USU won first place, Richards said.
“We spent the night celebrating having swept the contest,” he said.