ENGINEERS A TRIPLE THREAT IN NATIONAL CONTESTS

UMaine Engineering a Triple Threat in National Contests  

May 12, 2006
Contact: David Munson (207) 581-3777 

ORONO, Maine – What do chemical cars, steel bridges and concrete canoes have in common?

UMaine student engineers are making some of the best in the nation.

As the 2005-2006 academic year winds down, a variety of contests are held around the region and across the country that test the ability of college students to apply the skills that they have learned in the classroom. Three of the most prestigious national engineering contests, the American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe Contest, the National Student Steel Bridge Competition and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Chem-E-Car Competition, will be welcoming teams from the UMaine College of Engineering to their national events as the top regional teams come together to vie for best-in-the-nation titles.

While the final products created for each contest are very different, the competitions themselves are similar. Each requires a written report and oral presentation that outlines the technical aspects and design specifications of the entry, each requires that the student teams apply their knowledge to create an entry that can complete a specific task, and each demands thousands of hours from each team in preparation for the final contest. The competition is tough, the work demanding.

UMaine students are up for the challenge, however.

After winning the regional competition at the UMaine Engineering Expo in March, the UMaine Student Steel Bridge Team is working to further refine their techniques in preparation for the national contest, to be held on May 31 in Salt Lake City. In addition to preparing and presenting a comprehensive report on the specifications for their design, the team must also build the 3-foot-wide, 20-foot-long bridge from precut pieces of their own design. Their goal? To build it in 13 minutes or less.

Nearly 20 student members of the UMaine chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers took on the challenges presented in the institute's ChemE-Car Competition, forming two teams and placing first and second in the regional competition in April. The cars, one powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and the other by an aluminum-air battery, had to travel a prescribed distance and stop, carrying a payload revealed to the students at the time of the contest. The group is currently raising money to send a UMaine team to the 2006 national competition, to be held at the AIChE Annual Meeting in San Francisco November 12.