New 2010 Sunseeker ready for 2010 American Solar Challenge

 
The 2010 Sunseeker Team: front, kneeling, L to R: Jesse Wick, Megan Derwich with duck mascot Arnsie, Courtney Rawlings, Mitch Panek, Andrew Oman, and Madeline McAuley. Standing, L to R: Abe Poot, Joshua Allen, John Kapenga, Nicholas Killoran, Byron Izenbaard, Alex Hoeksema, Brad Bazuin, Kenwood Hoben, Fred Sitkins, and Paul Engelmann

In a ceremony at the CEAS Parkview Campus, the WMU Sunseeker Solar Race Car team unveiled its new version of Sunseeker – the WMU entry in the 1,100-mile 2010 American Solar Challenge (ASC2010) race. WMU will compete with about 17 teams from across the country and from Canada, Taiwan and Germany.

This is the 10th time WMU students have participated in a biennial ASC solar race and is one of only a few teams that have participated in all previous races. The only other Michigan collegiate participant is a team from the University of Michigan.

The challenge officially began on June 12 with Scrutineering at the Motorsport Ranch Cresson, Texas, where cars are inspected to assure conformity to all technical and safety regulations. On June 19, the competitors travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the official race which begins the next day, traverses four states, and ends June 26 in Naperville, Illinois.

The new Sunseeker features state of the art technology. It was designed with a new, more aerodynamic shape (left), outfitted with new solar arrays recycled from prior solar cars, and built and assembled by the 2010 team

Leading the WMU team is Nicholas Killoran, a mechanical engineering senior, who, along with several other team members, spent all their time recently working on the solar car in the Plastics Processing Lab at the Parkview Campus.

According to Abraham Poot, Sunseeker advisor, the team worked around the clock to prepare this year’s entry, which contains an innovative new design.

Dr. Paul Engelmann, IME chair and a major contributor to the Sunseeker project, said the team spent six months grinding the cells off the original vehicle for re-use as solar arrays for the new car. He said they had saved $150,000 by recycling the gallium arsenide solar cells. “This team has been working around the clock for six weeks,” he said. “This team truly understands the concept of Just in Time.”

The ASC competition is organized to promote an understanding of the benefits and promise of solar energy technology. Students are encouraged to be creative and to learn from the hands-on experience.

To find more information about the WMU project, visit the blog at http://sunseeker2010.blogspot.com/

The CEAS issues its own brown and gold coin to make connections

The CEAS Challenge coin: CEAS icon (L:tails) and the WMU seal (R: heads)

The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences has struck its own brown and gold coin to connect with and form bonds among its alums, friends, staff, and faculty.

Last January at the CEAS All-Hands Meeting, all members of the CEAS team received the new CEAS coin, which is approximately 1.75 inches in diameter.

CEAS Dean Tony Vizzini, who came to the CEAS last fall, introduced the CEAS brown and gold coin as a way to make connections. “Make sure you carry the brown and gold coin at all times,” he said. “We want you to show your connectivity to the college.”

The officially dedicated coin’s head is the Western Michigan University seal and CEAS logo is its tail. “Having a coin is a way to show that you belong to what’s on this coin,” Vizzini said. “It’s shiny and it stands out, and you can lay it on your desk.”

Vizzini explained that the idea of having a unique coin to connect a team comes from the military, where challenge coins date back to World War I. Before the US entered that war, a wealthy American Air Force pilot from New Jersey had coins struck for members of his flying squadron. They carried the coins to show their solidarity.

The pilot wore his in a leather sack around his neck. When he was shot down and captured by the Germans, his papers were confiscated, but not his coin. He escaped from the Germans and headed for France, where he was immediately captured by the French who thought he was a German saboteur. He was scheduled to be executed until the French noticed the coin he wore around his neck and recognized the squadron symbol.

When his story checked out that he was an American flying with the British, the French gave him a bottle of wine instead of executing him. “The coin saved his life, and he was benefitted by receiving an adult beverage,” Vizzini told the audience. “So carrying the coin could save your life, and it could also get you an adult beverage.”

The members of the flying squad agreed to carry their coins at all times and to challenge others to do the same. If a coin-carrying member challenged another to show his coin, the other had to either show the coin or buy the challenger a drink. If the challenge was met, then the challenger had to buy the drink.

“I carry mine all the time,” Vizzini said. “We want all of us here and all of our alums and friends to carry their coins all the time.”
The new coins were handed to each Spring 2010 CEAS graduate in a handshake. “When you hand it to someone, give it to them in your palm,” Vizzini said. “It’s a way of connecting.”

To get the coins to all CEAS alums, Vizzini told the CEAS faculty, administrators, and staff, “If you meet an alum who doesn’t have one of our coins, give him yours and we’ll give you another one.”

The coin was designed by Laura Decker, CEAS finance analyst.

IME honors the 2010 top scholars at Clausing luncheon

From left, Erik Kostandyan, IEND; Joseph Mydosh, MFT; Joseph Adams, EDT; Brandon Gorton, UEM; James Burns, IEE; Courtney Rawlings, MNEM; Christopher Lininger, ENMM; and Dr. Paul Engelmann, IME chair

IME’s top students were honored in April at the 57th Annual Student Recognition Luncheon provided by Clausing Industrial Inc.

The 2010 IME Outstanding Student Awards included four undergraduate seniors, five graduate students, and three service award winners.

Joseph Mydosh, manufacturing technology (MFT), and James Burns, industrial and entrepreneurial engineering (IEE), earned both IME and CEAS dean’s awards in their respective majors.

Brandon Gorton won the IME award in engineering management (UEM), and Joseph Adams won the IME award in engineering design technology (EDT)

Graduate students honored as outstanding students were Christopher Lininger, engineering management (ENMM); Courtney Rawlings, manufacturing (MNEM); Trent Kenworthy, industrial engineering (IENM); Kari Frikken, operations research (OPRM); and Erik Kostandyan, IME’s top industrial engineering Ph.D. student (IEND).

Outstanding Service Awards were presented to Madeline McAuley, a manufacturing grad student for her continuing work on the IME blog and Web site; John Jacobs, an electrical engineering student who has served in the IME office for the last two years; and Norman Douglas, a recently retired lab instructor.

Also lauded were IME’s presidential scholar, Matthew Scarbrough, a UEM senior and the CEAS dean’s outstanding UEM student; Christopher Reniger, the dean’s outstanding EGR student; and a number of scholarship and award winners.

IME Chair Paul Engelmann praised the award winners and the faculty who support them and acknowledged the officers and advisors of seven student societies.

Engelmann challenged the winners, society officers, and other future leaders to envision every decision they make as keys to who they will become.

The event was organized by Tom Swartz, IME Scholarship and Awards Committee chair, and Drs. Steven Butt, Kailash Bafna, and Jorge Rodriguez.

Klaz Welch, Mary Fosburg, and John Jacobs, IME office administrators, were acknowledged for their support in organizing the luncheon.

More 2010 Student Awards and Scholarships

Grad Research Awards
Ashley Hovenkamp / Erik Kostandyan

Clausing Industrial Scholarship (2009)
Devon Talcott

E-week Scholarship
Brandon Gorton

Herbert Ellinger Scholarship
Jordan Avery / Adam Blake

FEF/CIC Scholarship
Scott Horton

SME Roscoe Douglass Scholarships
Edward Brabandt / Adam Blake / Jordan Kimble / Madeline McAuley / Joshua Wiese

IME Undergraduate Scholarships
Brandon De Young / Eric Nederhoed / Lynnette Neil

Saginaw Valley AFS Scholarship
Jordan Kimble

Kellogg’s IE Scholarships
James Burns / Carlee McClintic

IME 1420 TA Awards
David Schmidt (S 09) / Eric Mamo (F 08)

IME 1420 AutoCAD Contest Winners
Russell Parsons (S 09) / Karl Waltzer (F 08)

ASEE North Central Paper Competition
First place: Sean Derrick & Jeff Rauen
Third place: Steven Srivastava, Anson Clawson, Matt Otis, & Robert Simmons