Competition helps fuel creativity , innovation , growth
Spring time is competition time as is evident by the number of faculty and student led teams making final preparations to put their work of a year , or sometimes years , on display against global competition .
This month one such team , loaded down with one land and five aerial autonomous vehicles , journeyed to the United Arab Emirates to take part in a robotics challenge two years in the making . Read their story on page 12 .
Other teams include our student teams such as the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team preparing for the third year of four year competition later this spring . Our Formula team , debuting their electric formula car this year ; the Battery Operated Land Transport team , hitting the race track for the first time with their newly designed and built BOLT III electric motorcycle . And of course , our senior design teams ; more than 50 student groups who will display their work later in April .
All of these teams , and many , many more , give mechanical engineering students and faculty a visible , tangible expression of their craft . But more importantly , these events and competitions help us push the boundaries of what is possible - or what we think is possible .
As an example of our current state-of-the-art research , in this issue you ' ll see Shashank Priya and his team are creating a device to harvest wasted heat energy from mechanical systems and turn it into useful electricity . ( page 21 ).
This is a small sample of our mechanical engineering , but none of it would be possible without the trust and support of people who believe in us and in what we do . They are our sponsors , our donors , our grant agencies , our corporate partners , and sometimes , they are visionaries who want us to push boundaries through competition .
Azim Eskandarian ME Department Head
MOMENTUMSPRING ' 17 PAGE 4