Students race penny vehicles throughout National Engineers Week

Hands-on learning was a priority for Engineers Week demonstrations.

In an effort to promote the school’s program, the College of Engineering celebrated National Engineers Week from Feb. 21-26. Guest speakers and alumni dinners brought insights, but current students took center stage.

On Tuesday, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering Dr. William Miller’s Intro to Engineering class competed in the penny vehicle race.

One hundred thirty teams of two raced cars made of bond paper, toothpicks, sewing thread and four pennies. Similar to a Pinewood Derby, the cars carried a 24-gram Phillies Fanatic figurine down an incline.

“We made it in three hours last night,” said Tyler Sassano, a  freshman construction management major. His car lost in the first round.

“It’s about learning to design economically and finding innovation without very many resources,” Miller said.

On Thursday, graduate mechanical engineering students Tuan Nguyen and George Diloyan showed off their Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell research. The pair tested a moped and car powered by fuel cells.

Diloyan explained fuel cells can power a vehicle using hydrogen, but they are more expensive and can be damaged by vibrations during highway driving.

“We’re researching the influence of vibration on fuel cell durability,” Diloyan said.

The goal is to replace traditional combustion engines with fuel cells. Nguyen displayed a needle designed to concentrate chemotherapy in a cancerous prostate tumor.

“The needle will follow the prostate,” Nguyen said.

In the CEA lobby, Dr. Dennis Silage, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, displayed the school’s collection of computers, spanning from

1976 to this year. Among the selection were a 1977 Apple II computer, 1984 IBM PC/AT and a 2010 Texas Instruments eZ430 Chronos watch.
Many of the pieces are used in computer engineering hardware courses at Temple.

“Temple was the first to offer an undergraduate course in microprocessor technology,” said Silage while handling a 1976 KIM-1 microprocessor trainer.
On Friday, students displayed their projects in Samuel L. Paley Library.

Jonathan Childs, a senior mechanical engineering major, talked to visitors about his team’s efforts to re-create the first mass-produced dialysis machine, invented by Dr. Willem Kolff in 1943. Artificial Kidney Student Research Project is a two-semester independent study.

Childs explained how his team saw two existing original models, one at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and another in Florida, as guides for their re-creation.

“It’s a good opportunity to get more hands on, which is something you don’t normally get to do,” Childs said.
The team has been commissioned by a museum in Kolff’s native Netherlands for the completed machine.

Amelia Brust can be reached at abrust@temple.edu.