Harvesting the Sun and Wind

Technology improves every day and with the constant demand for new and improved gadgets, there is an even greater demand for the entrepreneurs who invent them. The ASME Student Design Competition Team Creative Inquiry project, led by Dr. Suyi Li in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, works to fill this need by guiding students in creating designs of their own.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Student Design Competition is an annual event that offers a platform for students to present solutions for a wide variety of design problems. These problems range from simple household struggles to space exploration, offering students the opportunity to think outside the box with their designs. Each year, a phrase is presented as the theme for the competition; this year’s phrase is “Harvesting the Sun and the Wind.” The team’s goal is to design and build a solar and wind powered vehicle that can be controlled remotely. The vehicle is evaluated by its performance navigating a course while transporting weights. “We’re using a huge array of solar panels to power our battery, and that’s going to sit on top of the car. We’re utilizing as much space as possible because the more surface area you have, the more energy you’re going to generate using the solar panels,” Anthony Dempsey, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said. The annual ASME Student Design Competition consists of multiple rounds over the course of two days, whittling down the contestants to just three prize-winners in the end.

The team is student-driven which offers many benefits for participating undergraduates. “Gaining the experience with 3D printing has been great because when making prototypes, it’s really useful to have that experience and knowledge,” Garren Adamson, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said.

This year the competition went virtual. Each team submitted a video of their vehicle completing a homemade course. With submissions due in March 2021, the team planned accordingly. Although the design process is never finished, the team determined their vehicle design before winter break and continued to the manufacturing phase in the spring semester. They hope that their prototype will win first prize, but either way, the students see the project as a way to improve and develop as mechanical engineers while addressing the world’s energy needs.