Ceremony honors 2009 Spring AutoCAD competition winners

Experience seems to be a key ingredient to the success of winners of the 2009 Spring AutoCAD competition. They were honored at a ceremony in early December.

Slobodan Urdarevik, the lead lecturer for IME 1420 Engineering Graphics, presented the awards before a Fall 2009 IME 1420 lecture class. The audience included students eligible to compete in the 2009 Fall AutoCAD Contest. “The 2009 Spring competition was very close,” he said. “They all did a very good job.”

Russell Parsons,a sophomore in civil engineering, won first-place. The Rochester Hills, MI, native graduated from Adams High School, where he took two years of high-school, computer-aided design (CAD) classes. He has been busy with coursework.

The second-place winner is Brandon Weeda, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, lives in Kalamazoo but graduated from Plymouth Christian High School in Grand Rapids. His background in graphics includes a semester in an architectural program called SoftPlan 13. He is presently a teaching assistant (TA) in IME 1420. His future plans are open but include an internship.

Third place winner Blair Ward, a sophomore majoring in engineering graphics and design technology (EGR), is from Kalamazoo. The Paw Paw High School graduate had two years experience in AutoCAD and drawing before coming to WMU.

In addition to classes, Ward is also an IME 1420 TA, and he works at Pizza Hut in Paw Paw. He recently joined Engineers Without Borders, which is planning a summer project in Honduras. His future plans include finding an internship before he graduates and eventually finding a job “someplace warm like Georgia.”

Slobodan Urdarevik (right), lead faculty for IME 1420 Engineering Graphics, with
(L to R) Dr. Paul Engelmann, IME chair, and Spring AutoCAD winners Blair Ward (3rd), Brandon Weeda (2nd), and Russell Parsons (1st); Parson’s winning drawing is shown

All three winners received Best Buy gift cards and engraved plaques, which were donated by Dr. Hooks, Inc., a Kalamazoo-based business.

Dr. Paul Engelmann, IME department chair, congratulated the winners. “These students have demonstrated their ability to bring together what they have learned in the classroom and demonstrated their ability to use it.” He encouraged the audience to participate in this semester’s competition. “You all have the same opportunity next week.”

The competition is held at the end of each semester for the more than 300 students enrolled in IME 1420 Engineering Graphics, where students complete about 50 CAD-related assignments.

For the competition, students create a two-dimensional AutoCAD drawing and a 3D-solid model of a complicated part. They must show all dimensions and all symbols needed for manufacturing. For more information about the competition or about CAD drafting at WMU, Email slobodan.urdarevik@wmich.edu

SWE workshop offers Girl Scouts an introduction to engineering

For five hours on a Saturday in November, WMU’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) presented its annual “Engineer for a Day” workshop at the Parkview Campus. Twenty-eight middle and high school Girl Scouts from the Heart of Michigan Council completed hands-on, problem-solving and learning activities to simulate what engineers do.

SWE members who directed the scout event (L-R), Courtney Heath, Katie Risnes, Lauren Fromm, Lynnette Neil, Fernanda Pereira, Laura Alger, Allison Porrett, Persefoni Lauhon, Kelly McCarthy, and Melinda Katanbafnezhad

For the first activity, “The Leaning Tower of Pasta,” the scouts designed and built structures from spaghetti and marshmallows with the goal to have the structures hold as much weight as possible.
The scouts ventured outdoors to test how adding Mentos to a liter of soda pop can create some spectacular soda spraying.

For the Egg Drop Event, the scouts worked in pairs and used a variety of materials to design, create, and test packaging that would protect a raw egg from breaking when it was dropped from the second floor to the first.  Some packages were more successful than others.

The scouts toured the Parkview Campus and learned why a concrete canoe floats, how a race car is designed and built, and what type of careers are open to those who major in engineering.

Geoff Van Gemert (right), a member of WMU’s Formula SAE team, showcases the 2009 car the team designed and built

Fernanda Pereira, a first-year chemical engineering major from Canton, MI. coordinated the event. At the conclusion of the workshop, SWE President Allison Porrett asked the scouts how many were interested in a career as an engineer, and approximately a third raised their hands.

“This workshop helped me decide what I want to do for a career,” said Maddie Dietrich, an eighth grader. “I’m definitely considering engineering.”

SWE’s (L to R in green) Allison Porrett, Laura Alger, and Lauren Fromm lead the final engineering feat: the scouts made their own ice cream treats with milk, sugar, cream flavoring, ice, rock salt, who plastic bags, and a lot of shaking.

Girl Scout leaders who attended the event with their troops were impressed with how the event stimulated the scouts’ problem solving abilities and introduced them to the idea of an engineering career, said Heather Ackman, a representative of Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan.

SWE is planning a workshop for younger Girl Scouts in February 2010.