Month: August 2018

Supermileage Systems Enterprise takes 1st place in Design, 8th Overall, in 2018 SAE Supermileage Competition

sae supermileage competitionMichigan Tech’s Supermileage Systems Enterprise competed in the 2018 SAE Supermileage Competition in Marshall, MI this summer. SAE Supermileage, an engineering design competition for undergraduate and graduate students, provides participants the opportunity to strengthen their engineering design and project management skills.  The goal for SAE Supermileage is to develop and construct a single-person, fuel-efficient vehicle that complies with the competition rules. The vehicles run a specified course to obtain the highest combined kilometers per liter (miles per gallon) rating. Students must complete a written report and verbal presentation during competition.

There were 29 teams that participated in the 38th SAE Supermileage Competition representing the U.S., Canada, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. Michigan Tech’s Supermileage Systems Enterprise placed 1st for overall design with a score of 430 out of 500 based on their written report and verbal presentation. Their first competition run was a success, reaching a fuel economy of 425mpg. Tech placed 8th overall based on the fuel economy results, as well as their design report and presentation.

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Prior to competition, the team was missing key testing milestones and needed several students to work remotely and on campus after Spring semester ended. In the process, Supermileage Systems Enterprise team members discovered several issues that required them to shelve their new clutch design, simplify the electrical system, and revert to a mechanical throttle. This experience reinforced the importance of testing, troubleshooting, project management, and perseverance. “We have much to be proud of. Our ability to get through technical inspection much faster this year was a result of better preparation and simplifying our designs,” shared Rick Berkey, Supermileage Systems Enterprise Advisor. The design work this year lays the ground work for an even  more competitive vehicle in 2019. Every student member of Supermileage Systems Enterprise furthered their learning and personal/professional development through an experience that simply cannot be duplicated in the classroom.

 

Berkey Presents at 125th ASEE Conference

Rick Berkey, director of the Enterprise program was invited to participate in a panel session titled  “Professional Issues and High-impact Practices” at the 125th Annual American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sponsored by ASEE’s Undergraduate Experience Committee, the panel featured high-impact programs in engineering education which integrate professionalism into the curriculum. Berkey presented Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program alongside the following programs: SCOPE Program (Olin College), Student Competition Teams (Louisiana Tech), NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program (Bucknell University), Women in Engineering Program (Purdue University), Industry Relations (University of Portland), Tau Beta Pi Engineering Futures Program (Purdue University), and Undergraduate Research (California State University, Fullerton).

Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT

The ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition is dedicated to all disciplines of engineering education. It is committed to fostering the exchange of ideas, enhancing teaching methods and curriculum, and providing prime networking opportunities for engineering and technology education stakeholders such as deans, faculty members and industry and government representatives. This year’s conference took place June 24-27 and featured more than 400 technical sessions, with peer-reviewed papers spanning all disciplines of engineering education.

Berkey and Thompson Present at 2018 Capstone Design Conference

Rick Berkey, director of the Enterprise program and Joe Thompson, associate director of industry engagement, attended the 2018 Capstone Design Conference at Rochester Institute of Technology on June 4-6. They presented a poster and paper titled “Enterprise: A Multi-year, Interdisciplinary Learning Experience at Michigan Technological University” (co-authored by Zack Fredin, Enterprise program coordinator ). Berkey also facilitated a panel session at the conference titled ‘Multidisciplinary Models for Capstone Success’.

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The Capstone Design Conference is held every two years and provides a forum for the extended capstone design community (faculty, administrators, industry representatives, and students) to share ideas about improving design-based capstone courses. More information on the conference can be found here: www.capstoneconf.org.