From left are Ahmed Alobaid, Alexander Motonaga, Bryce Carbon, Elijah Hemingway, Hamad Algeri and Spencer Smith with the carbon-fiber electric scooter they designed for Dr. Bae. It has a top speed of 48 mph.
CHENEY- Students in the Mechanical Engineering & Technology department at Eastern Washington University (EWU) were in the spotlight last Wednesday, May 8, when the university hosted the Mechanical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering Technology Capstone Expo.
Eight teams took part in the event. The categories they could submit their projects included 4WD Baja Buggy, Search and Rescue Drone, RV Lift, Log Splitter, VIP Cooler, Tabletop Wind Tunnel, Carbon Fiber Electric Scooter and a Toilet Pelvic Positioning Device.
Dixie Hania and her team members presented their recreational assistance lift project inspired by "Jeff," a man bound by a walker who asked them to create something that would allow him to use camping vehicles with ease and wouldn't pop mid-air like the one he'd had.
"Jeff asked us to make something better. Getting to this point is a long process but it's worth it," she said. "The biggest challenge was having the design work out right. It's a lot of trial and error and it can be really exhausting."
Hania said that the designs her team put together in the first quarter did have some errors when it was time for the lift to come to life in the second quarter, but after many alterations, it was fully functioning and ready to hit the road.
Even with perfect calculations in the designs, Hania said there is always something that is off and takes a little bit of modifying to get the right results.
It's no surprise that students in the Mechanical Engineering &Technology experience many long nights trying to complete their capstone projects.
Associate Professor Matthew Michaelis said this process had been a challenge for the students, but it's a relief for everyone when the day comes for the capstone expo.
"I'm always surprised by the things they come up with," he said. "There are a lot of late nights represented here today. It's a culmination of hard work and they've put all of their classes together. We do our best to mimic a situation where they have an actual project for a job."
Associate Professor Alex Bae shared sentiments similar to that of Michaelis as both professors supervised four capstone projects.
"All of these projects here are from scratch. They truly built that," Bae said. "They overcome many obstacles to get here."
Michaela is a former newsroom intern at the Cheney Free Press. She covered stories on education, city government, cops/courts/fire departments and local businesses.
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