Category: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Tech Baja Enterprise Team Takes First Place Twice

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UPDATE:
Baja Team Sweeps in Wisconsin

This past Saturday, October 17th, Michigan Tech’s baja racing team participated in the Backwoods Baja race held by UW-Stout. The race was held at the Arkansaw Cycle park just outside of Menomonie, Wis. Michigan Tech Blizzard Baja swept the field taking first, second and third place, as well as the fastest lap. The race was a four-hour enduro, split in half by an hour intermission.

This has been an impressive semester for the baja team with wins at Midnight Mayhem and Backwoods Baja. They’re looking forward to a great set of national competitions in Tennessee, California and potentially New York this coming spring.

Michigan Tech Baja Team Sweeps in Wisconsin
Michigan Tech Baja Team Sweeps in Wisconsin

Baja Enterprise Team took first place in a regional competition

The Michigan Tech Baja Enterprise Team took first place in a regional competition over the weekend in Bedford Kentucky at the Nickota Motorsports Track. The competition involved 104 Baja cars from university teams throughout the country.

Tech’s winning vehicle was the 2014-15 competition car, “Bristol.” The race was very muddy and the track crew needed to stop the race part way through to maintain the track. Over the course of the four-hour endurance race only about two hours of wheel-to-wheel racing was conducted because of all the stuck cars, accidents and track maintenance.

Tech Baja alumnus Kyle Cooper says, “I’ve seen a lot of Baja races, but I’ve never seen a Baja mud bog.”

Nearly all the cars struggled with the mud, however Tech was able to power through for the first-place finish. Watch a video for more coverage of the race.

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See more pictures of Blizzard Baja Team

baja235See onboard video on YouTube of Michigan Tech Blizzard Baja Car 99

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Nina Mahmoudian Receives a Young Investigator Program Award from Office of Naval Research

image123120-horizOnly 36 faculty across the US were invited to join the Young Investigator Program (YIP) from the Office of Naval Research this year; additionally, only a small percent of faculty receive the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Nina Mahmoudian, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics at Michigan Technological University, is one of a select few to receive both in the same year.

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National Society of Black Engineers Spring Break to Promote STEM Education and Careers

NSBE4aNational Society of Black Engineers students from Michigan Tech are going to present science, technology and engineering talks in the Detroit area for middle- and highschool students at five different schools by day, and presenting three family engineering nights for elementary students at night. The spring break trip is supported by John Deere.

The Houghton Michigan Daily Mining Gazette had an article: “Doing good downstate: Six Tech students will spend break sharing with youngsters.

2015 Graduate Research Awards

IMG_6237 (400x252)Dr. Greg Odegard was recently presented wit the 2015 Exceptional Graduate Faculty Mentor Award from the Graduate School at the 2015 Graduate Research Awards Banquet. This Merit Award for Exceptional Graduate Student Mentor recognizes advocacy for graduate students, being available and encouraging to students, and creativity/interdisciplinary collaboration in new opportunities for graduate student.

Winter Baja at Michigan Tech Results Saturday Feb. 21st

IMG_5650640The 2015 Winter Baja was held Saturday, Feb. 21, near the Student Development Complex at Michigan Technological University.

The University of Iowa car #48 came in first place, followed by Northern Michigan University car #40 at 2nd Place and Ferris State University car #76 at 3rd Place. Other standings are listed below showing the place and laps completed. In the dynamic event University of Michigan Car #1 came in first followed by University of Iowa Car # 68 at 2nd and University of Michigan Car #161 at 3rd.

Dean’s Teaching Showcase: Gordon Parker

image57865-persby Mike Meyer, director, William G. Jackson CTL

The Dean’s Teaching Showcase nominee for this week comes from the College of Engineering. Dean Wayne Pennington has chosen to recognize Gordon Parker, the John and Cathi Drake Professor in the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Department. Both Pennington and MEEM chair Bill Predebon praised Parker as “a great success story of the flipped classroom approach.” Gordon has effectively implemented the flipped classroom model in both a senior level and graduate level controls course, and now has more than 30 video clips that are being used world-wide.

Michigan Tech students join in international PACE contest

PAMDMichigan Tech students participated with other university students in an multi-year international competition to design a Portable Assisted Mobility Device (PAMD) through the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) program. There were 7 international teams and 45 universities from around the world involved, showing the “collaborative engineering” purpose of the PACE program. At the 2014 PACE Global Annual Forum in Turin (Italy) the projects were evaluated by an international team of judges including GM/Opel, Siemens, PLM Software, Autodesk, Oracle, and HP.  

Design Expo 2014 Awards

The Design Expo highlights hands-on, discovery-based learning at Michigan Tech. More than 600 students in Enterprise and Senior Design teams showcase their work and compete for awards. A panel of judges, made up of corporate representatives and Michigan Tech staff and faculty members, critique the projects.  

Space Solar Power Workshop a Success

Michigan Technological University, in collaboration with professionals from NASA, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the Space Solar Power Institute, hosted a Space Solar Power (SSP) workshop to clarify the challenges facing SSP implementation. The workshop was held in conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments at Baltimore, MD, November 7 – 9, 2013. Researchers from Industry and Academia of many countries including India, Japan, UK and USA participated in this event.