Team competition gives Mizzou students boost in job market

 Right, Marty Walker, director of administrative services for the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia, helps students put on a front axle to the racecar. Students, left to right, Justin Myers, Russell Tveitnes, and Ben Stockman, hope to finish the care by May of next year.

From designing futuristic racecars to building concrete canoes, University of Missouri students have the opportunity to get hands-on learning and a professional boost through competitive teams fielded by the College of Engineering.

The teams are open to all MU students, regardless of major. Director of Administrative Services Marty Walker said the diversity “gives us a different flavor, and provides a variety of ideas.”  The diversity is important because the competition is graded on more than the finished product. “It’s not just build a car and drive it,” Walker said.

For the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) small race car competition, the students need to promote their design, account for the costs, cover safety aspects, and keep records. The car doesn’t even need to win the race – the students can win the competition if they earn enough points in other areas.

In the concrete canoe-building competition, teams earn points for a design paper, an oral presentation, a final product and the canoe races. Among the objectives listed on the college’s Web site are, “to build awareness of the versatility and durability of concrete as a construction material among civil engineering students, educators and practitioners, as well as the general public,” and “to increase awareness among industry leaders, opinion makers and the general public of civil engineering as a dynamic and innovative profession essential to society.”

Students also are involved in competitions to design and build steel bridges, timber bridges, hydrogen-powered cars, solar-powered cars and a low-cost utility vehicle for poor people in developing countries.

A common thread among all teams is the need for time management. Walker said there’s always a competing factor for the students’ time, between school, work and the team. Learning to balance everything makes the students attractive candidates, Walker said.

As for the job market, Walker said the starting salary for an average engineer is over $50,00, up to $75,000, for a specialized area, and $100,00 for those with graduate or doctorate degrees. The need for engineers is out there, he added.

“We can’t produce enough engineers,” Walker said.

Walker is adviser to the SAE team, co-adviser to the Basic Utility Vehicle, and assists the hydrogen team.  He also controls the funding for all teams and evaluates their business plans and, in general, provides technical advice, as well as all logistical support for the teams.

The teams are organized much like a business with a slate of officers. At start of the school year, each team has to supply a business plan.

“We give the seed money, but they’re expected to get companies to sponsor them or donate money,” Walker said.

The competitions are important for a number of reasons, according to Walker.

“That learning environment is translated immediately into producing something. The light goes on,” Walker said. The teams also help students with socialization and cooperation among peers.

One of the greatest benefits is the boost toward professional employment.

“Companies want to employ these young men and women because they’ve started with a concept and ended with a functioning product. They’re engineers,” Walker said. The students learn to function as part of a team, which is a valuable commodity on the job market, he explained.

Junior Eric Sawyer said his team background helped land an internship with Harley-Davidson. His experience as a member of the hydrogen car team, he said, has helped him take criticism from people on the same level, or above and below. Part of the experience is learning from mistakes and returning to the table to design solutions.

The Mizzou hydrogen car team is made up of students who seek to promote awareness of alternative fuels, develop technology, and allow members to gain practical experience by designing, building, and competing with a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, according to the Web site.

In previous years, MU built a solar car. Walker said they “decided to break the mold, and go into emerging technology critically important today.” He said he’s seen tremendous student interest in the car.

In July, the hydrogen car participated as a demonstration vehicle in the North American Solar Car Challenge 2008. Sawyer said they had to drop out because brake light problems made it unsafe on the road. Its next demonstration, along with the SAE Formula car, is at the Missouri State Fair racetrack.

Sawyer said since there are no regulations, they designed the hydrogen car from scratch. Walker said the forward-thinking team “set the pace.” The vehicle is 15 feet long by 5 feet wide, 36 inches tall. The one-person vehicle has a carbon fiber body. With driver, the car weighs in at 750 pounds and has twice the power of solar cars.

Walker used the analogy of a ceiling fan to explain the concept and said, “take the blades off, and you have this narrow, circular motor on the ceiling, turn it on its side, put an axle on it. That is the motor. One wheel only is powered up to 70 MPH.”

The college’s other car, the SAE Formula One car, weighs 450 pounds. According to the Web site, “the Formula SAE competition is for SAE student members to conceive, design, fabricate, and compete with small formula-style racing cars.” The cars over a period of about one year and are taken to an annual competition for judging and comparison with approximately 120 other vehicles from colleges and universities throughout the world.

Right, Marty Walker, director of administrative services for the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia, helps students put on a front axle to the racecar. Students, left to right, Justin Myers, Russell Tveitnes, and Ben Stockman, hope to finish the care by May of next year.

“For the purpose of this competition, the students are to assume that a manufacturing firm has engaged them to produce a prototype car for evaluation as a production item. The intended sales market is the nonprofessional weekend autocross racer. Therefore, the car must have very high performance in terms of its acceleration, braking and handling qualities. The car must be low in cost, easy to maintain and reliable.”

The Formula car team has been responsible for some engineering breakthroughs, Walker said. He supervised 20 undergraduate students in 2004-05 in a joint venture between the Science and Technology Center Ukraine, the National Nuclear Security Agency, Kansas City Plant (Honeywell FM&T) and the College of Engineering Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Formula Car Team.

“The SAE team provided mechanical drawings of brake rotors, pedal assemblies, mufflers, wheels and other parts to Honeywell FM&T.  In turn those drawing were forwarded to STCU who manufactured theses parts from suitable alloy (titanium) material,” Walker said. “The light-weight components were shipped back to the SAE Team and tested in a non-static environment using formula cars as test beds. The SAE Team photographed and videotaped the components in use; performed computer simulation and analysis and provided data to Honeywell FM&T.

“The development and manufacture of lightweight components has the potential to eventually be included in production automobiles; translated the lighter the vehicle the better the gas mileage,” he said. “This research went a long way to assist in this goal.  Additionally, it taught numerous budding engineers how to do research, testing and documentation which is critical in engineering and exposed them to the rigors of working on international projects.”

Walker said all of the SAE team members who participated in the project had job offers even before they had graduated.

“This was a direct result of their experience in this project. As they started their new jobs, I am sure that they were head and shoulders ahead of their peers because of this experience.”

At the other end of the technological scale is the BUV – Basic Utility Vehicle team. This competition is geared toward helping the transportation needs of third world countries.

Students must build a vehicle, with a 10-horsepower motor that can be assembled with two or three simple hand tools and locally available parts. The vehicle is manufactured and put together like a kit so people can keep it running. The competition has different design regulations each year.

“This one actually has the potential to affect people’s lives,” Walker said. The BUV forces students to crack that concept, just as for the students with the futuristic designs.

“Same professor, same education, vastly different outcomes,” Walker said.

In addition to the road vehicle competition, the students participate in the concrete canoe competition, and steel bridge and timber bridge. Walker said companies are present at the competitions, looking for prospective employees and asking for resumes.

The college has one team per category with 10-35 members. Of the 2,000 undergraduate engineering students, 8 to10 percent of those students were on the these particular teams.

Thanks to their standing in competition, the SAE Formula One and the solar/hydrogen teams have been invited to participate internationally. A few years ago, the team came in first place in the North American competition, and later placed second at the world competition in Australia.

MU students are in the whole “cradle to grave process” by designing the car and machining the parts. They learn what works and what needs to be redesigned.

“They’re better engineers because they know the full 360 process,” Walker said.