Purdue University mechanical engineering students dreamed up and built more than 30 inventions in senior design classes this semester -- projects ranging from medical devices to sidewalk-advertising printers.
Purdue last week announced the School of Mechanical Engineering Spring 2010 Dr. Thomas J. and Sandra H. Malott Innovation Award winners.
"Innovation is crucial to the economic well-being of our nation in today's global economy," said E. Daniel Hirleman, Purdue's William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering. "Our faculty have developed the facilities and curriculum for Purdue students to convert their dreams and ideas into real hardware that helps people."
Projects receiving top awards, in order of first-through-fourth place, were:
- A system that uses structured mechanical vibration to prevent bone-density loss for astronauts or sedentary medical patients.
- An automated technology for environmentally friendly printing of high resolution advertising on sidewalks
- Electricity-generating turnstiles, or "greenstiles," for use in subway stations, sports stadiums, amusement parks and other venues.
- A system that prevents people from taking more than one newspaper at a time from standard newspaper dispensers.
The students completed the project in one semester.
"The competition reminds you how good a Purdue engineering degree is," said Thomas Malott, one of the competition judges and retired president and chief executive officer of Siemens Energy and Automation. "The Purdue students really know their profession and are prized by industry in many engineering fields. They are hard working and team oriented."
The competition serves to cap Purdue's strong engineering programs, said Dennis E. Warner, another judge and president and chief executive officer of Aero Engine Controls in Indianapolis.
"It was interesting to see how the students reacted to a challenge that said you will be rewarded for both innovation and for the technical rigor of your design, which is a totally different thought process than how students are normally taught," said Warner, a Purdue engineering alumnus with degrees in mechanical engineering and aeronautics and astronautics. "I have always been impressed with the applicability of a Purdue degree. We recently hired six new engineers, and four of the six were Purdue grads."
The senior design teams were advised by faculty members Khaled Asfar, Ray Cipra, Eckhard Groll, Bumsoo Han, Daniel Hirleman, Eric Nauman, John Nolfi, William Oakes, Karthik Ramani and Fu Zhao.
"I think the projects are extraordinary," said Carol L. Shuttleworth, also a judge, CEO and president of Shuttleworth Inc., and co-chair of the Purdue Foundation Board.
"Since the projects were taken from concept to working prototype in only one semester most of them are works in progress, but you have to have a spark in order for there to be a flame."
The students in the bone-loss prevention project were Jonathan Childress from Speedway, Ind., Anne Dye from Akron, Ohio, James Isca from Fort Wayne, Ind., Danny Rawson from Hales Corners, Wis., and Andrew Zakrajsek from Strongsville, Ohio.
The students in the sidewalk-printing project were Jake Johnson from Pendleton, Ind., Jose Gomez from Acarigua, Venezuela, Tommy Woroszylo from Lowell, Ind., and Christopher Blake from Cicero, Ind. The project was done in conjunction with industrial design students from the College of Liberal Arts.
The students in the power-generating turnstiles project were Kevin Iwanski from Naperville, Ill., Ross Adams from Geneva, Ill., Tyler Sullivan from Bozrah, Conn., Andy Constantine from Naperville and David Poglitsch from Barrington, Ill.
The students on the newspaper-theft prevention project were Tom Butts from Fort Wayne, Mike Hulen from Highland, Ind., Zach Klemens from Palatine, Ill., Ted Shepard from Brainbridge, Ohio, and Qianmin Zhang from West Lafayette, Ind.