Engineering students take first place in design contest

A team of PSU students from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers took first place in a radio-controlled car contest. The student regional conference was held April 6-7 at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Wash.

For the contest, each competing team first gave presentations on their cars, which were based on a 1/10 modeling scale. These were then judged on three events: acceleration, slalom and Baja-terrain obstacle courses.

Out of eight contestants, which included representatives from Montana State, Idaho State, Central Washington and other schools, the PSU team of Jan Hampton, Jamie Kelso, Jeremiah Rogers and Steven Godlewski placed first, receiving a trophy for their merits. This was the second year this team had participated in the event, which next year will take place here at PSU.

This event served as a warm-up for senior design projects. Their motivation stemmed from an interest in designing cars, and was already a hobby for some of the members.

“The project helped us learn more about engineering and solid modeling,” Godlewski explained. “It was additional learning for us and a good opportunity to take what we have learned in school and apply it.”