Many colleges encourage their students to participate in contests where they are required to design, fabricate, test, and operate some type of device or system to compete against similar teams from other universities. Some of these projects are fairly straightforward, but others involve significant faculty and staff support. All have three things in common: students as the primary participants, faculty member(s) who provide technical and supervisory support, and some element of risk to those involved. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that safety faculty members might encounter as they assist these teams.
University/college/department sanctioned participation of students in design contests appears to be on the rise. Indeed, there are ample opportunities for students to participate in contests covering a wide array of curriculum areas. Most of these tend to be engineering oriented to some extent. In this article, we will discuss projects associated with the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, located within Auburn University, Alabama. The college is comprised of nine departments: Aerospace, Biosystems, Chemical, Civil, Computer Science and Software, Electrical and Computer, Industrial and Systems, Mechanical, and Textile. Initially established in 1872, the College has an undergraduate and graduate enrollment of approximately 3,700 students, and 130 faculty members.
Traditionally, a recognized strength of the Auburn engineering experience is the 'hands on' approach that permeates the curriculum. Many courses include a project and senior design is a required component of the curriculum. Some students are actively involved in research opportunities, and a great number of them participate in one or more of these sponsored design contests. Some recent examples of the competitions to which Auburn University has sent teams, with the lead department, includes:
Chemical Car (Chemical)
Concrete Canoe (Civil)
Steel Bridge (Civil)
2002 Solar House Decathlon (Engineering & Architecture)
Mini Baja SAE Vehicle (Mechanical)
Balsa Bridge, glueless (Civil)
Formula SAE Car (Mechanical)
Mini Baja SAE Vehicle (Mechanical)
Solar Car (Mechanical)
Further contests anticipated or planned for 2004 include: Super Mileage, 2004, Solar Bike Rayce USA, 2004, Formula Sun Grand Prix, 2004, SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge, 2004, SAE Walking Robot Challenge, 2004, ASAE 1/4 Scale Tractor Design Competition, 2004, and the ASAE Student Environmental Design Competition: Fountain Wars, 2004.
Though there is a great deal of variability between individual contests, most have similar structures in certain areas. Participation is solicited by a sponsoring organization, rules and contest criteria are published, a faculty member with expertise in a particular area will either volunteer or be assigned, a team will be developed (typically led by a motivated, matriculated student, guided by the faculty member responsible for the project), project planning will occur, and resources will be requested. The project will typically include a design phase, followed by fabrication (perhaps the construction of a prototype), testing, travel to (and from) the contest, participation, and finally project retirement.
