By Jens Dana
Professor Robert Todd tapped on the microphone and called for the 32 teams to take their places at the masking tape start line. Team Mave slid their homemade, cardboard runway into place and weighted it down. One team member shifted it slightly. It was a small adjustment that meant nothing to onlookers but everything to Team Mave.
Another team member twisted back the arm of a mousetrap catapult, pulled the string taut and attached it to the nose of the plane. To the side, other teams rolled up their 18-inch mousetrap powered cars with CD wheels, gleaming and ready to spin.
?Begin!? Todd called out, after explaining the target distance for the vehicles.
The rest of Team Mave stood back, and the triggerman released the plane. It glided several yards before it landed, a foot short of the finish line. One flight down, eight more to go.
The unique race last Friday is part of the two?semester engineering capstone course, a cumulative course that challenges the students to apply theories to practical experience. The class began the school year by dividing into teams to complete a one-week assignment to design mousetrap-powered vehicles that can travel and stop accurately within a specified distance.
?This project is meant to wet the students? appetite,? said Todd, who is a professor of mechanical engineering. ?We want them to get excited about design for functionality and also about the design process they can use in real life experience ? with real customers, real needs and real deadlines. It?s not just an academic exercise.?
Industrial corporations, including Boeing and the National Institute of Health, sponsored each engineering team. And at the end of the year, many of these companies will hire the students, Todd said.
?Virtually all of them will get good jobs,? he said. ?They are good students, and they are very capable.?
Linda Kump, secretary of mechanical engineering, said the project was not only a gauge of the students? ability to apply theory to practice. It was also an opportunity for students to exhibit work environment skills, such as teamwork, she said.
?The project is meant for team building and engineering,? Kump said, ?but mostly team building.?
Student participants agreed teamwork was essential to their team?s success.
?It?s a group project, so we had to depend on each other,? said Jeff Hogges, Team Mave member, ?It was a great initial break- in for everyone.?
Hogges said the members of the team had previously been interested in aviation and aerodynamics.
?It turned out pretty good,? Hogges said. ?We were faster than the average time.?