Winners of the MecE 260 challenge (l to r): Martin Kreiner, Addison Tse, Molly French, George Harris, Mohammed Shahriar Noor
The Easter Bunny had a little help from second year Mechanical Engineering students this year. Students in Mechanical Engineering 260: Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Design were tasked with designing and building a robot that could maneuver an obstacle course while safely carrying an "egg" to the finish line.
"The most important lesson for the students from this project is that it's fun to build," says Professor Pierre Mertiny, the course instructor. "We could teach all this design in class but the actual building is different. It's the fun part."
This semester's theme for the robot challenge was "Humpty Dumpty" and keeping their egg safe was a significant challenge for most teams.
"Designing for the egg was definitely the hardest part," said members of Group 15. "We focused most of our efforts on a design that would keep the egg safe."
The design challenge provides students with opportunities to use their creativity and ingenuity to come up with solutions as they emerge over the course of the designing and building. For group 18, these challenges emerged as the egg continually fell off the tray they had designed for it.
"We had limited materials, and so the tray just wouldn't balance the way we needed it to," said team members.
The course is often the first time students have had the opportunity to build something they've designed from the bottom up.
"It's a steep learning curve," said one member of group 15, while the others nodded in agreement. "It's one thing to imagine it and do it on the computer but then the material doesn't always cooperate."
To meet the challenge teams relied on each other's experience. For example, while most vehicles were wheeled, Group 6 designed a vehicle that ran on a track.
"I have experience working with track engines," said Tyrrel Oulton. "So it was obvious to me that we should use a track."
In addition to design and the implementation of design, groups also learned the value of time management and working as a team.
"Time management was the hardest part," agreed the members of group 18. "Building the vehicle took time and the trouble shooting would interrupt our progress."
This semester's course provided good viewing for spectators as well. Hills to climb and potholes to maneuver meant there was plenty of action for the crowd to enjoy and every vehicle got its share of cheering and celebration.
No matter what happened with the egg they carried, all these students were celebrating their success.