How To Engineer A Winning Competition Project: Lessons Learned From The Human Powered Vehicle Challenge
- Conference
- Location
-
Chicago, Illinois
- Publication Date
-
June 18, 2006
- Start Date
-
June 18, 2006
- End Date
-
June 21, 2006
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Design in Engineering Education
- Page Count
-
17
- Page Numbers
-
11.698.1 - 11.698.17
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--1387
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/1387
- Download Count
-
372
Paper Authors
John Gershenson Michigan Technological University
Dr. Gershenson is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering – Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan and directs the Life-cycle Engineering Laboratory. Professor Gershenson performs research in the areas of life-cycle product architecture and lean and sustainable design and manufacturing. Specific research interests include: product and process architecture, product platforms, modular product design, lean manufacturing, lean engineering, life-cycle design, and design for the environment. Research sponsors include NSF, General Motors, Ford, Lucent Technologies, SME, and ALCOA. He has approximately 32 refereed publications and has been the PI on research projects with a total value of about $2.5 million.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Abstract
Engineering society competitions, such as the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, are commonly used as projects in capstone engineering projects. At MTU, we have made use of this competition to give students and experience using a structured engineering design process and to help them become confident in their ability to bring a project from requirements to hardware delivery. These goals are realized in other capstone design projects as well at MTU and backed up by a set of corresponding lectures. MTU has had mixed results with competition projects in capstone design in the past. In the four years that we have participated the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, we have been able to overcome the usual issues that cause students to under utilize their engineering skills in competition projects.
The MTU Human Powered Vehicle team has been very successful in meeting their goals for the competition – engineering excellence. The keys to our success have been how we have solved the issues of team organization, advisor management, and sponsor support. Over a four-year period we have developed a system of organic leadership building and flexible staffing of engineering problems. The advisors have learned to both motivate and manage the team, while taking care of administrative roadblocks. We have also developed an extensive network of component and service sponsors; without whom, a project at this level is impossible. Of course, along with all of these important programmatic developments, it is still the engineering and a push to continually innovate with respect to the design, the engineering, and the fabrication process that has led to the success of the MTU Human Powered Vehicle program.
Gershenson, J. (2006, June), How To Engineer A Winning Competition Project: Lessons Learned From The Human Powered Vehicle Challenge Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--1387
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2006 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015