Ohio State motorsports capstone design students shine in College of Engineering's Capstone Design Showcase

In its second year as a capstone design option for fulfilling the College of Engineering's senior capstone design project requirement, the Motorsports Capstone Design program saw the participation of five teams--a total of 15 students. Industry judges selected the division winner as mechanical engineering team “Automated Manual Transmission Actuation Capstone."

Design-Build-Test
Students in the program complete a full academic year project beginning from traditional classroom experience to learn the fundamentals of engineering design and other important professional skills and ending with building and testing the project. Students learn valuable skills in design, engineering communication, and teamwork as they progress through a rigorous design process on a real-world problem. The culmination of the program is the college-wide Engineering Capstone Design Showcase, in which industry judges evaluate each of the project team’s efforts.

Students in this year's program spanned three departments--mechanical, electrical, and computer science engineering--and addressed a broad range of topics, from hybrid vehicle charge port integration to a lift system for a 700lb 40' vehicle. Shawn Midlam-Mohler, program director and assistant professor of mechanical engineering, describes skills learned in the program. "The students gained experience in almost every facet of mechanical and electrical engineering--hands on work included design, CAD, FEA, circuit design, manual machining, thermal analysis, CNC machining, 3D printing, control software, system modeling, and project management.”

Participating students:

Title: Buckeye Bullet 3 Vehicle Mobilization System
Students: Matt Gittings, Josh Kohli, and Dustin Rose

Title: EcoCAR 2 Charge Port Integration
Students: Alex Bergman, John Swigart, and Xue Yang

Title:  EcoCAR 2 Engine Conversion and Aftertreatment Capstone
Students:  Adriana Leslie, Andrew Spiegel, and Jason Ward

Title:  Suspension Design for the 2013 EcoCAR 2 Competition
Students:  Aaron Ressa, Brad Shear, and Allen Sun

Title:  Automated Manual Transmission Actuation Capstone (EcoCAR 2)
Students:  Josh Hendricks, Christopher Burns, and Luke DeBruin

The winning team in the Motorsports Capstone Design division was “Automated Manual Transmission Actuation Capstone." The team, comprised of Josh Hendricks, Christopher Burns, and Luke DeBruin, was judged in its category by four industry judges. The project aimed to build a machine to test their client's automated manual transmission. Although a significant undertaking (double the scope of the project), the team persisted and created the machine, which is currently being used by the OSU EcoCAR 2 team to test their transmission prior to competition.

Funding and support
The Motorsports Capstone Design program is funded through internal and external sponsors. Internal sponsors for 2012-13 were OSU CAR, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and College of Engineering/Engineering Education Innovation Center and external sponsors were Ford, GM, Honda, and TSTech. "This is an excellent example of the College of Engineering’s commitment to experiential learning and how motorsports projects can serve as a great source of leverage. None of these achievements would be possible without the vital support of our internal and external sponsors,” says Midlam-Mohler.
 
Contact:
Holly Henley, Program Assistant-Marketing and Communications, henley.53@osu.edu
Shawn Midlam-Mohler, Motorsports Capstone Design Program Director, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, midlam-mohler.1@osu.edu