First-year students showcase advanced energy vehicles

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Three students pose with their AEV vehicle design and poster at the competition.
First-year industrial and systems engineering major Megan Stoughton (center) and her Team Schrock 9-B teammates pose with their AEV design.
Forty groups of Ohio State students participated in the Department of Engineering Education's (EED) annual AEV Showcase and Competition this past spring. 

During the two-semester Fundamentals of Engineering course series, students were introduced to the energy and environment design-and-build project, which requires technical graphics (3-D visualization and sketching), computer-aided design, project management and teamwork skills.

“This competition tests their creativity,” said Graduate Teaching Associate Monica Okon. “A big part of engineering is innovation.”

The Star Wars-themed scenario had students imagine they were going up against the galactic empire to create an energy efficient vehicle, which will be used to transport R2-D2 units from a remote planet using a monorail system. 

The team members of Kim 15-A used external resources to differentiate their project with several rubber bands and gloves to tackle balances issues, speed and energy efficiency of their servo modem.

“We did not use a 3-D printer because we wanted to save costs,” said Vikas Munjal, a second year student studying public health and humanitarian engineering. “Innovation is important in engineering.”

Teams were judged on their overall vehicle design based on their poster design, project engineering, innovation and communication.

“We had to do several brainstorming, programming and performance tests to fine-tune our vehicle and it wasn’t an easy process,” said Megan Stoughton, a first-year industrial and systems engineering major and member of Team Schrock 9-B.

A student places an AEV on the competition track, while other students stand in background.
A student prepares to run an AEV on the competition track
Despite challenges with programming, strategy and modeling, students were all able to produce advanced energy vehicles that performed consistently while still minimizing the amount of energy used.

“As an engineer you are always designing something. Being able to systematically test, quantify and justify your reasoning throughout the design process is a good aspect of this course,” Stoughton said.

The best poster design first place award was presented to John Whitesell, Samantha Hernandez and Zi Xiang Heng. Second place was awarded to Jon Gerding, Ryan Lasek, Brian Maher and Tom Marren; and third place was awarded to Busick: Skylar Wurster, Aaron Pajestka, Eric Kennedy and Xavier Elder.

The best project engineering and innovation first place award was presented to Everett Dutton, Scott Gayfield, Jack Loth and Matthew Stuve. Second place was awarded to Christo Albert, Nicholas Guerin and Dale Mitchell; and third place was awarded to Michael Fetter, Tyler Wismor, Luke Buettner and Daniel Corgan

The best communication first place award was presented to Reed Esper, Jacob Bores, Caroline Mollmann and Sam Wolfe. Second place was awarded to Chris Klesto, Will Lightcap, Kevin Wade and Mike Sorine; and third place was awarded to Lexi Hemker, Judy Nunez, TJ Waterkotte and Nick Moon.

For track competition, the first place award was presented to Christo Albert, Nicholas Guerin and Dale Mitchell. Second place was awarded to Nasif Basher, Eric Chen, Jonathan Coyle and Sam Maloney; and third place was awarded to Matthew Ritzenthaler, Andrew Elderbrock, Yubin Choi and Isaac Faust.

Best video first place went to Ethan Bryan, Charlette Lin, Amir Rasul and Nate Parsons. Second place was awarded to Aaron Pycraft, Kongxuan Yan and Tianhang Huang; and third place was awarded to Everett Dutton, Scott Gayfield, Jack Loth and Matthew Stuve.

View additional photos from the showcase and competition on flickr.

by Kyjah Coryat

Category: Students