Student News continued MechE Students: A Successful Sort
A team from Carnegie Mellon won first place during the regional American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Design Competition in March. The team will compete in the finals of the international Student Design Competi- tion at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE), held November 12-18 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Carnegie Mellon team’s winning entry—variously
named “Sortimus Prime” or “Henry”—is a recycling device designed to sort glass, steel, aluminum, and plastic bottles according to their mechanical properties such as magnetism, length, and mass. “Henry” can sort 12 bottles in about 24 seconds on average, while the other devices at the competition took several minutes to complete the same
task.The Carnegie Mellon team includes 11 members, ranging from freshmen to seniors. However, because of ASME restrictions, the official competing team consists of four MechE students: senior Dan Shope (captain), junior Jaime Bourne, freshman Steven Ford, and junior
David Stonestrom. Unofficial members include junior Megan Dority, sophomore Jason Lu, and freshman Michael Saitta from MechE; freshman Collin Buchan, graduate student Andrew Jameson, and freshman Prerak Patel from Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE); and junior Katherine Coste from Materials Science and Engineering (MSE).•
Using Their ImagiNations
An interdisciplinary team from Carnegie Mellon and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) has secured a finalist spot in the nationwide 2010 Imagi- Nations Design Competition for Walt Disney Imagineering. This creative competi- tion encourages university students to design a new ride, hotel, themed restaurant, or other attraction within an existing Disney theme park or resort. Team leader Kyle Gee, a junior in MechE, has dreamed his entire life of working
as a Disney Imagineer to be able to design and create Disney theme parks and attrac- tions. He started working on his design for the ImagiNations competition last sum- mer with his three team members: MechE junior Tema Yaravitz, junior Cassie Li from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), and Imogene Chayes, a junior at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. The team’s design, called “Elephant Graveyard Escape!,” is a thrilling attraction
created for the Africa section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, set in Disney’s “The Lion King.” For the competition, the team created concept art for the vehicle, costuming, and scenes for the ride. They also developed a 22" x 40" artistic concept model of the ride, a story treatment and report, and a SolidWorks engineering model of the ride vehicle and track. As finalists, the team will be flown to Glendale, California, for a nine-day work-
shop in June, where they will work closely with current Imagineers and tour the Imagineering campus and other Disney
sites.The team will also present its project to the board of judges, who will decide which team among the finalists will win Best in
Show.Many former ImagiNations contestants have received summer internships with Walt Disney Imagineering, and some have even gone to become full-time Disney Imagineers.•
18 I C ARNEGIE M ECH
Student News Briefs
Graduate student Kamol Chuengsatiansup, who is advised by Associate Professor Metin Sitti, received the Nick G.Vlahakis Graduate Fellowship from the College of Engineering. Nick Vlahakis (M.S. 1974) created this grant program to support Carnegie Mellon students in engineering and technical disciplines. . . . . .
Two Ph.D. students from Assistant Professor Jessica Zhang’s Computational Biomodeling Lab have recently received awards. Wenyan Wang won the Liang Ji-Dian Graduate Fellowship worth $5,000. Jin Qian won the student travel award for the tenth U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics Conference. Zhang is research advisor for both students. . . . . .
In addition to receiving a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (see Carnegie Mech, Fall 2009), doctoral student Elizabeth Traut has also received a 2009-10 Steinbrenner Institute Fellowship. This fellowship will help fund her research project, “How Does Energy Policy Affect Vehicle Design?” which is overseen by Assistant Professor Jeremy J. Michalek. . . . . .
MechE junior Alex Hanson and the three other members of the Carnegie Mellon 800-yard Freestyle Relay team set a new school record and earned Honor- able Mention at the 2010 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in March. Last semester, Hanson was also named the University Athletic Association Men’s Swimming Athlete of the Week. Hanson’s individual events include the 200-yard Individual Medley (IM), 400-yard IM, and 200-yard Backstroke. . . . . .
MechE senior Julie Ng was honored with the CIT Carnegie Mellon Women’s Association (CMWA) Outstanding Student Recognition Award during the CMWA Scholarship Reception in April. Ng was one of three Carnegie Mellon students chosen for this award, which honors outstanding senior undergraduate women. Associate Professor Philip LeDuc presented the award to Ng.
. . . . .
Junior Robert Piston Jr. received the James G. Fulton Fellowship, allowing him to intern in the Washington, D.C., office of a Pennsylvania Congressman over the summer. Piston was one of three Carnegie Mellon students, and the only engineering student, to win this prestigious fellowship.•
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