Spring 2014
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING |
NEWS
WINNERS
VOLTZ N’ BOLTZ ON TOP!
After four very long days of competition, VOLTZ N’BOLTZ, the University of
Idaho’s Vandal Formula Hybrid Racing Team returned victorious from the New
Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH. In fact, news of their win was
received and announced by Dean Larry Stauffer on the eve of EXPO at the
gathering of students and judges—an exciting kick-off for the annual EXPO.
Aside from winning first place over all, the team also was awarded the
following:
The jubilant team in New Hampshire.
• From the GM team of engineers, first place for best hybrid vehicle design. They
were very impressed with the clean, tight packaging of the drivetrain, and the
thoughtful attention to detail throughout the vehicle design process.
• The Chrysler team of engineers gave out their top three Chrysler Innovation
Awards. GM and Chrysler tend to agree on almost nothing, but both agreed
that the University of Idaho should be awarded the top position. They especially
loved our compact, lightweight, mass-centralized design approach, and the
intelligent integration of the internal combustion and electrical drive systems.
There was much said about the enormous team effort in redesigning and
fabricating the pieces to make the battery storage system compliant.
After all the pictures and celebrations, the team returned to the paddock to find representatives
from both GM and Chrysler. The GM team encouraged all of the students to leave resumes.
The Chrysler team was there to personally invite every member of the team for a site
visit and job interview at their headquarters.
We echo Dan Cordon’s words, “Congratulations to the current and previous Vandal
Racing Team. Your vehicle design, the way you portrayed your work, and your
exceptional team attitude throughout adversity was certainly noticed and rewarded.”
This project is supported by faculty and staff advisors: Professors Dan Cordon,
Edwin Odom, Steve Beyerlein, Mike Santora, Herb Hess and machine
shop manager Russ Porter.
The University of Idaho Formula
Hybrid Team is interdisciplinary:
from the Mechanical Engineering
Department—Jordan Anderson,
Jonathan Andring, Derek Arrotta,
Adam Bunch, Ignacio Lopez,
Nathan Peterson, Bryan Tiniacos,
Gillette Zenner and graduate
mentors Mostafa Asfoor, Matt
Kologi and Rory Lilley; Amos
Bartlow from Electrical and
Computer Engineering;
David Arnett from
Computer Science; and
Artemio Ambriz of the
Virtual Technology &
Design Department.
To read Dr. Dan Cordon’s blow-by-blow
account of the competition, go to this link:
http://www.uidaho.edu/engr/me/newsletters/fhsae
CLEAN SNOWMOBILE
CHALLENGE
Clean Snowmobile Challenge was held as always in Michigan’s
upper peninsula where snow is a fact of life in the winter. This year
temperatures in the -14 to -21 degrees Fahrenheit range added an
extra challenge.
Our team was somewhat disappointed to place third, as it seemed
they had a good chance at number one, judging by individual
placings:
• Second-highest emissions score in the event, bested only
by an out-of-this-world diesel engine.
• Cold-start of the sled (which doesn’t even have a battery)
took a single pull. More than a few great-running sleds were
not able to start their engine after 20 seconds of trying.
Of the two teams that beat them, one won two awards,
and the other won three. The teams that beat them
included a diesel that was so clean and efficient that it has
literally changed the future scope of this competition, and
a turbocharged Miller cycle engine that was co-developed
with GM engineers. We are a team from the West (with no
automotive backing), where more than half of our students
have never ridden a snowmobile, been to a previous
competition, are not yet junior-certified in our program, and
are using a conventionally dirty two-stroke engine. We are
proud!
Dr. Dan Cordon has taken over advisement of the SAE Clean
Snowmobile project since the retirement of Karen Den
Braven. The link below is Dr. Dan’s complete day-by-day
report which gives a good feel for the competition and how
well our students performed.
http://www.uidaho.edu/engr/me/newsletters/csc
(Photos courtesy of KRC/MTU)
• Tied for top speed in the acceleration event, reaching 73
mph in just 500 feet on a sheet of ice used for skid-testing
of automobiles.
• Demolished the competition in the timed-handling event,
beating the next closest team by ~five seconds around
a course that took us ~50 seconds. This was due to both
exceptional skill of our rider, and an outstanding overall
design.
• Best Design award, based on their SAE technical paper,
their presentation, and conversations at the static display.
If you have any question about how difficult it is to win
best design at an SAE competition, I can assure you that
this is a big deal.
CSC Team 2014 with sled and awards.
• Best Handling award is decided by a panel of judges who
ride all the competition sleds and pick the one that they
liked the dynamic behavior of best. We won by so much
that other teams had been telling us all week that they
knew the rest of the field was simply fighting for second.
Every industry judge that rode our sled indicated that it was
the only one they would consider purchasing.
• Best Performance award based on times in the acceleration
and handling events.
• Best Ride award based on the judges’ perception of
ride quality.
Dillon Savage accepting 3rd place award.
Our sled in the acceleration test.
2
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 2014
TEAMWORK!
MICROBAJA TEAM PLACES
SECOND OUT OF TEN TEAMS
The UI MicroBaja
team placed second
out of ten teams
How does
...
become
(WSU, EWU, BSU,
Highline CC and four
other community
colleges). Our
car performed
excellently and as
designed. For our
team, there were
not any catastrophic
failures or breakages
during competition.
WSU along with
two other teams were not so fortunate. Lesson learned? No matter how much money is thrown at a project, common sense
prevails. UI was also asked to potentially host next year’s MicroBaja Tournament. The majority of this year’s group will still be
around to help with brainstorming on course design.
THIS
THIS?
HAVE EGG, WILL TRANSPORT?
Mechanical Engineering students have fun amid the
challenges. ME 223 Mechanical Design Analysis gives
sophomore students an opportunity to work in teams
designing, building, and testing some sort of system. This year,
the students were tasked with transporting an egg from point
A to point B over an obstacle course as efficiently and quickly
as possible, without damaging the egg. Teams were formed,
but the difference in this instance is that each transport
required the collaboration of five teams, each responsible for
one obstacle component, which had to mesh with the whole.
See his presentation of the final trials of the project and the two
winning teams at this link:
http://prezi.com/gllqf-oi0ttn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_
medium=copy&rc=ex0share Strict rules and specific requirements were established by
course professor David Alexander.
The five-part obstacle course for the ME 223 team challenge.
MECHANINCAL
ENGINEERING NEWS is the newsletter of the University of Idaho
Mechanical Engineering Department,
PO Box 440902, Moscow, ID 83844-0902.
Phone (208) 885-6579.
Any opinions expressed herein are those of the
writers and do not necessarily represent the official
position(s) of the university or its Board of Regents.
Editor: Elaine Queener
2014 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
3
STUDENTS EXCEL
Shams Arifeen, ME Ph.d candidate, who is spending the
summer on an internship at Micron in Boise, has received the
following recognition:
Ernsberger Engineer’s Award 2013-2014 for exemplary
leadership in student organizations, by the College of
Engineering
International Student Scholarship 2014 for strong academic
record and leadership qualities, by the International Programs
Office
Sheikh Memorial Scholarship 2014 for involvement in campus
and community activities, by the International Programs Office
Three University of Idaho students, Stephen Wayne (ECE),
Kyle Morse (ME), and Stephen Goodwin (ME), received
travel scholarships to attend the 11th Annual International
Planetary Probe Workshop in Pasadena, CA, in June. Kyle
presented a poster which was named outstanding student
poster for this year’s workshop. Kyle and Stephen are spending
the summer as interns at NASA Ames working with the
Intelligent Robotics Group. Each year since the first workshop
in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2003 the University of Idaho has been
a sponsor of the IPPW and is considered one of the founding
organizations of this meeting. This is largely due to Dr. David
Atkinson, professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department, one of the founders of the workshop along with
Jean-Pierre Lebreton of the European Space Agency.
The Center for Ecohydraulics Research (CER) is a
graduate education and research program dedicated to
studying links between physical processes and aquatic
ecosystems. Two CER students, Heidi Smith (Ph.d Water
Resources) and Tim DeWeese (MSCE) have been awarded
Hydro Research Foundation fellowships.
Heidi’s research aims to improve on predictions of the onset of
sediment motion in rivers by including the effects of turbulence
and local river topography. She collected turbulence data using
the Center for Ecohydraulics’ flume laboratory, then tested
her sediment motion model in an outdoor river laboratory in
Brunni, Switzerland.
Tim aims to develop a new, simple and economical method to
continuously monitor and record local streambed scours and
depositions for ecological and engineering purposes.
Ralph Budwig, Boise U. of I. Engineering Director, is serving as
a committee member for both these students.
Outstanding Seniors in the 2014 spring graduating class were
difficult to choose. Five of our graduates earned 4.0 grade
point average and the whole class was exceptionally high. We
feel that factors other than gpa are equally important. The two
students chosen for this honor were Nadine Morasci and
Stephen Goodwin, both originally from Coeur d’Alene.
FACULTY
Eric Wolbrecht’s FINGER in
Nature magazine.
Robotics is on the rise, aiding man and beast in marvelous
ways. Several of our professors are involved: Dr. Michael
Anderson has been working for years with Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles for the U.S. Navy; Dr. Wolbrecht’s most
visible project is the Finger Individuating Grasp Exercise
Robot, a device which assists patients’ rehabilitation following
stroke; Dr. Joel Perry is new to the U. of I. with specialties and
experience in robotics. See this link to “Rehabilitation: Machine
Recovery,” in Nature magazine which highlights FINGER along
with robotics projects from other schools.
Outstanding student poster winner Kyle Morse.
4
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 2014
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v510/n7506_supp/
full/510S8a.html
Dan Cordon joins ME faculty
We were pleased to add Dr. Dan Cordon to our Mechanical
Engineering Faculty last fall adding a great deal of enthusiasm
and new ideas to the department. Dr. Dan accompanied both
the Clean Snowmobile Challenge and Formula Hybrid car
teams to their competitions. Look for links to his accounts of
those events earlier in this newsletter.
Dan supplied us with this background information:
• Graduate school with Steve Beyerlein looking at a
variety of engine, fuel, and vehicle related topics. MS
in 2003, and Ph.D. in 2010.
• Worked as the test engineer in our Small Engine
Research Facility (SmERF) for many years.
• Worked as an engineer on the Autonomous
Submarine project for two years.
• Grew up in the countryside outside Eugene, Oregon.
• Teaching ME and ENRG classes since 2000.
• Raced three-wheelers on the Florence, Oregon sand
dunes, and learned how to maintain, repair, and
modify small engines.
• Currently hold an expert motorcycle road racing
license, and have been racing with WMRRA for
several years.
• Started doing classic and muscle car restorations as a
teenager, learning about various vehicle systems.
• Came to school at UI in 1996, and worked on various
student competition teams like the HEV Challenge,
Electric Camaro Racecar, and all our FutureTruck
entries.
My current role in the ME department is as a clinical faculty
member. In this position I’ve been teaching our freshman
Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design course, our
junior Solid Modeling class, and am one of the instructors for
our senior Capstone Design course. I also serve as the faculty
advisor for our Clean Snowmobile Challenge team, and our SAE
Formula Hybrid competition team.
Dan Cordon (extreme right) with CSC team members and former team advisor Dr. Karen Den Braven.
2014 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
5
David Alexander
David Alexander who joined the Mechanical
Engineering Department last fall, is now leaving
the U. of I. for California State University, Chico.
Information from Dr. Alexander:
My position at California State University Chico
(CSUC) is in the department of mechanical
engineering which is part of the Mechanical
and Mechatronic Engineering and Sustainable
Manufacturing (MMEM) Department within the
College of Engineering, Computer Science, and
Construction Management.
I was hired into a tenure-track position to support
their thermal sciences program as well as senior
capstone. Their capstone program is similar to the
U of I program; in fact, their capstone professor,
Dr. Greg Watkins, came to Moscow with Dr. Ron
Smelser when they were both at UNC Charlotte
many years ago to tour Dr. Beyerlein’s capstone
program. I’m very excited about continuing to
advance capstone education and collaborating with Dr. Beyerlein and others.
Dr. Alexander working with students.
Chico is in Northern California about 90 miles north of Sacramento in the central valley and
at the base of the western Sierra Nevada foothills. The town is about four times the size of
Moscow but considered small compared to the much larger Sacramento area and SF Bay Area.
I went to CSUC for my undergraduate degree. So, like Lebron, I’m going home.
Joel C. Perry
Don Elger
Joel C. Perry is newly-appointed Assistant
Professor in the Mechanical Engineering
Department with a focus on robotics and
engineering design. He received a B.Sc. degree
in mechanical engineering from Gonzaga
University in 2000, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
in mechanical engineering from the University of
Washington, Seattle, Washington, in 2002 and
2006. Originally from the State of Washington,
Dr. Perry spent the past six years working
abroad in the Department of Rehabilitation
Technologies at Tecnalia Research & Innovation in San Sebastian, Spain. Before
joining Tecnalia, Dr. Perry was involved in the development of a seven degreeof-freedom (dof) arm exoskeleton for rehabilitation, a five-dof high precision
positioning robot, a five-dof surgical simulator, a novel two-dof surgical grasper,
and a one-dof powered prosthesis for early-stance gait improvements in
trans-tibial amputees. His research interests include enabling technologies for
upper and lower limb disability, rehabilitation robotics, and surgical robotics.
He has published and contributed to six peer reviewed journal articles, two
book chapters, and one patent on the subject of robotics and other supporting
systems for rehabilitation.
Don Elger is on sabbatical both Fall and
Spring semester 2014-2015. Here is his goal
for this sabbatical time: Imagine an ideal
engineering school. In each class, students
figure out the main ideas, remember these
ideas nearly forever, and can apply these
ideas to solve real-world problems. When
students finish this engineering school,
they are insanely good at engineering. Now
imagine that this engineering school costs
students only one-third of what they are
now paying so that most students are able to
graduate debt free. Also, most students finish
in about half of the time. Such an engineering
school is possible because researchers, in the
past 10 years, have figured out the science of
learning. Dr. Elger’s goal during his sabbatical
is to build a web-based learning system
that makes this engineering school possible.
The focus is on designing a class in fluid
mechanics while also building a template
that can be applied to any course.
6
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 2014
ALUMNI
Mike Harper, BSME 2004, MSME
2006, has been promoted to Vice
President of Engineering by Colmac Coil
Manufacturing in Colville, WA, where he
has worked for seven years.
Jeremy Olberding, MSME 2005, has worked for Colmac Coil Manufacturing since
finishing his master’s degree. Recently promoted to Vice President of Sales, Jeremy
has contributed to the company through various positions including R & D Engineer,
Sales Engineer, and most recently Sales Manager. From the Colmac Coil website: “The
company has seen significant growth in sales in recent years thanks to all the hard
work by the sales team under Olberding’s leadership. More growth is expected in the
near future with Olberding continuing to lead the way.”
UNMANNED AIRCRAFT
TESTED FOR MEASURING
POLAR ICE SHEETS
Alec Bowman, BSME U of I 2013, MS Aerospace
Engineering, University of Kansas, 2014, participated in an
aeronautics team project featured on the National Science
Foundation website (link below). The team designed, built,
and equipped a remotely-controlled airplane weighing a
mere 85 pounds with a range of 100 miles which assesses
behavior of the world’s ice sheets. Tested in Antarctica
last December, the team and advisors were pleased
and excited by the performance of the plane’s compact
radar system which looks through the ice and maps the
topography underlying rapidly moving glaciers. “The
results of this effort are significant, in that the miniaturized
radar integrated into a UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System)
promises to make this technology more broadly accessible
to the research community,” said Rick Hale, associate
professor of aerospace engineering and associate director
of technology for CReSIS (Center for Remote Sensing of Ice
Sheets located at the University of Kansas).
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_
id=130704
The aircraft reflected in Alec’s goggles.
Team members get down to the business of testing the plane.
Ever wonder what it would
be like to study or spend
time in Antarctica?
Here’s Alec’s blog which not only explains
the aircraft project, but also his experience
spending two months in the cold, snowy
world way down south.
http://flyingdownsouth.blogspot.com/
2014 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
7
Letter
the
from
Chair
Dear Alumni and Friends,
At the end of each semester I take the opportunity to visit with our
graduating seniors. They tell me the things that they like about the
department, the things they don’t like, and the things that we can improve
on. They talk to me about their experiences, which are as varied as each
student, and they talk to me about the classes they have taken, the things
they have learned, and we reflect on the progress they have made during
their time at the University of Idaho. As I visited with one of our graduating
seniors last May, she mentioned how close this particular graduating class
was. They had gone through the grinder together, and this really bonded
them. They could joke around with each other, razz each other, then
celebrate with each other when they finally graduated. Engineers carry
a stereotype of being unsociable, but I find that our students are quite
personable and friendly. For the most part they get along and work well with
each other, and support each other during difficult times.
We provide a number of opportunities for students to take a break from
their classes and expand their horizons. Some of these opportunities are the
student branches of technical organizations. In the department, we have a
large and active branch of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
(ASME). The ASME was founded in 1880 as an organization to bring
mechanical engineers together to solve technical problems and establish
engineering standards. The faculty advisor of the ASME branch, Professor
Steve Beyerlein, organizes field trips and competitions for our students.
The students learn leadership skills and mentor incoming
students while developing industrial contacts. They serve
as wonderful ambassadors for the mechanical engineering
department.
We also have a branch of the American Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Professor Matt
Riley is the advisor, and students who are interested in
aerospace fields can participate in the AIAA’s Design/Build/
fly competition.
The college also sponsors a number of engineering societies.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is an active group
which helps organize Women in Engineering Day and
encourages more women to choose engineering as a career.
A recent group, Engineers Without Borders (EWB), allows
engineering students to use their technical skills to help
solve problems in impoverished areas of the world. EWB
is based on the Doctors Without Borders model and is a
rapidly growing group.
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) has an active
branch on campus, bringing technical speakers from around
the country to motivate and inspire students. The Society of
Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) encourages young
Hispanic students, many of whom are first-generation
college students, to become engineers and use their talents
to benefit society.
Participation in these societies allows students to broaden
their horizons and learn skills beyond the classroom, and to
become well-rounded engineers as they enter the workforce.
It is a great pleasure to observe them learn and grow.
As always, we love to hear from you. Feel free to drop us a
line at medept@uidaho.edu.
Warmest Regards,
John Crepeau, Ph.D., P.E.
Professor and Chair
Department of Mechanical Engineering
KEEP IN TOUCH! We want to hear from you!
Mail to: Mechanical Engineering Department,
University of Idaho, 875 Perimeter Dr. MS 0902,
Moscow, ID 83844, or e-mail: medept@uidaho.edu.
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