Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Designed to succeed

Tech students build ATV for South Dakota competition

Argen Duncan El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

The rubber may not have met the road, but it did meet a lot of rocks, hills and soil.

A group of New Mexico Tech students placed 33rd out of 100 schools at the Mini-Baja competition in May, which pitted student-designed-and-built all-terrain vehicles against each other in Rapid City, S.D.

Among the many components of the Society of Automotive Engineers competition, Tech's Mini-Baja team scored seventh in motion events, seventh in the rock crawl, ninth on their mock sales presentation and 13th in the hill climb.

Software company Autodesk awarded the team third place for communication of a design project, with a prize of $250 and a plaque.

The Mini-Baja team is a mechanical engineering junior and senior design clinic group.

Faculty adviser Hollis Dinwiddie said he thinks Mini-Baja offers the best preparation for the "real world" of any project.

"There's a lot of blood and sweat and a little bit of heartache," he said. "And not all the time do your designs succeed, but you still have to work hard and be committed to them."

Team member Jake Scarbrough said the team worked for thousands of hours on the project. Cody Griffee led the group this year, and teammate J. Ryan Davis is taking his position next year.

In the 2005-2006 academic year, five students got the Mini-Baja program running after it had been gone for a time, said Scarbrough. Another five joined the group for the past school year, and they started the design in the fall.

Tech administration, Jim's Paint and Body Shop, Gambles True-Value and others sponsored the project.

Scarbrough said the group rebuilt dismantled cars from past projects to show team members their construction. Then they divided into groups to work on different elements such as braking, ergonomics and frame design.

The team made and analyzed three-dimensional computer models. They built fixtures, which hold pieces of the car in place so builders can secure them in the right positions to get the right results.

"Then, when we made those, we basically fabricated the car off that," Scarbrough said.

The group put the vehicle through field and endurance tests in a track in the flood control.

Since the work was a design clinic, the students turned in progress reports and gave presentations.

As a new team, they raised funds along the way. They also helped groups inside and outside the university, including giving presentations to secondary school Math, Engineering & Science Achievement students.

All 10 team members, plus a few volunteer assistants, traveled to the Mini-Baja contest.

"The competition had dynamic events and static events," Scarbrough said.

Static events included a technical inspection, designer and cost report, and sales presentation.

"It was pretty much marketing the car to a fictitious firm," Scarbrough said of the sales presentation.

Dynamic events included the hill climb, rock crawl and maneuverability test.

Scarbrough said the team didn't expect the 13th-place finish in the hill climb because the car wasn't built for it. Their seventh-place finish in the rock crawl was "pretty good" because the vehicle only had one gear, he said.

"So we got pretty far without ever having to back up or that kind of thing," Scarbrough said.

The four-hour endurance race through hills, a wash and trees was the biggest part of the competition. The team had several stations and radioed progress reports to each other.

"We rolled the car twice," Scarbrough said.

Several parts broke during the race, but twice the team fixed the problems and sent the car out again. When the brake light went out, officials wouldn't allow the vehicle on the track, and the team didn't have time to fix it before the end of the race.

Scarbrough believes they would have finished higher overall if they had placed better in the race, possibly by going more slowly. Dinwiddie thought the lower placing was due to lack of experience.

However, Scarbrough believes it is important that people noticed New Mexico Tech at the competition. He also said the group received compliments on the craftsmanship and professionalism of their car.

aduncan@dchieftain.com

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