MMAE Students Compete in the Annual Sketch Model Challenge
As part of the MMAE department's mechanical engineering capstone design course, MMAE 432: Design of Mechanical Systems, Matthew Spenko, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, starts the semester with a "Sketch Model Challenge."
The goals of the challenge are to familiarize the students with materials commonly used in sketch modeling, give them a better understanding of how much time it takes to make a model, introduce them to the difficulties of open-ended problem solving, to have fun, and get the creative juices flowing.
Teams competing in the challenge have to quickly design and build a device, made primarily out of paper products and insulation foam, that is capable of carrying one person while being propelled by another. Lighter devices get a leg up in the competition while the heaviest device must compete with a blindfolded driver. The devices are used to compete in a game, which varies year-to-year, between dodgeball, a jousting tournament, and a version of whirlyball.
This year’s challenge saw a hard fought dodgeball game, between the class’s Tuesday and Thursday lab groups. The event took place on February 3, 2015, the day after the 5th largest blizzard in º£½ÇÂÒÂ×'s history, causing problems for the teams that did not design their models for use in the snow. Ultimately, Tuesday's lab group beat out Thursday's lab group 5-2 to win the challenge.
