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Students Win - 2010 Tom Frecska Student Printing Competition
Several AEST students were recently honored by the Academy of Screen Printing Technology (ASPT) for work they completed and entered in the 2010 Tom Frecska Student Printing Competition. The competition is divided into two divisions, secondary and post-secondary, with twenty-four unique categories representing all applications of screen printing. These categories encompass screen printing technology from industrial printing applications to decorative arts, and everything in between.
"This year (2010) was the first time MU entered the competition, and I think we showed ourselves extremely well," says Dr. Mark Snyder, graphic communications technology professor. "It's an international competition, and our students went up against some pretty formidable global competition."
MU students took honors in three categories. Senior Brad Caldwell and junior Chris Williams captured the "Award of Excellence" distinction in two categories. Caldwell placed first in the fine art/digital category and Williams took top honors in the finished garment (light)/single-multicolored competition. Senior Stefanie Kulczyckyj secured a certificate of merit in the special effects - textile/single-multicolor competition. Caldwell and Kulczyckyj are senior technology education majors and Williams in a junior graphic communication technology major.
The Alaska Design Challenge Winners
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A lesson plan created by two technology education majors at Millersville recently received first place in “The Alaska Design Challenge,” a competition sponsored by the Anchorage school district of Anchorage, Alaska. Seniors Jon Jarrett and Thomas Flick |
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submitted their entry, “Innovation and Design: Communications Systems,” to this national competition. Together, Jarrett, of New Columbia, Pa., and Flick, of Elimsport, Pa., competed against technology education students from all over the United States to design a 10-day lesson plan to be used in a modern communications systems course. Students graduating in the spring or summer of 2011 worked individually or in teams of two to complete this challenge. Required activities in each of the plans included the engineering design process and concepts of design (function, form, principles and elements) for making informed decisions based upon mathematical data. The instruction also had to include a design brief, titled “Emergency Communications Challenge,” as an activity in the unit. The two spent a great deal of time working together on constructing the plan and their efforts were recognized at the 21st Annual Anchorage Career and Technology Education Conference, February 4-5. Jarrett and Flick each received $1,000 for winning first place as well as an all-expense paid trip to Alaska for the conference. Jarrett and Flick both felt the entire experience was, “a great opportunity to demonstrate what we learned through our courses and time spent at Millersville University.” |
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2010 National Robotics Champs - MU Wins the Cup!
The Robotics Team (ATMAE Student Chapter) at Millersville University took top honors this year at The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) Conference’s Robotics Competition with their robot named SAM. SAM stands for Semi-Autonomous Marauder. “It feels great to finally win this coveted award” says Dr. John Wright, Club Advisor.
Dr. Wright designed the very first ATMAE robotics competition 10 years ago and had never won the Robotics Cup (overall prize) despite participating nearly every year since 2001 and taking second twice. This year’s competition involved designing a robot to locate and retrieve metallic cylinders in the sand on Panama City Beach, Florida. Four elements made this competition especially challenging:
- The Sand – The shifting and loose terrain made for many drive/traction/navigation issues.
- The Remote Driver Location – For the tele-operated portions of the task, the driver had no direct line of sight and was located more than 100ft away from the robot with his back to the beach.
- The Autonomous Portion of the Course – The robots had to locate and pick up the objects in an autonomous only zone outlined in the sand.
- The Competition – The task involved running two robots against each other at the same time in a double elimination style bracketed event.
While the performance part was certainly challenging, the evaluation for the grand prize was no less involved. Every team was judged on Performance (40%), Electrical/Control Methodology (15%), Construction/Design (15%), Poster (15%), and Technical Paper (15%). Millersville’s team won first place overall (2010 Robotics Cup National Champions), first place Performance, and first place Electrical/Control Methodology. Their Driver, Greg Betz also won the “Best Driver Award.”
The students put gobs of hours into this year’s entry. Bradley Sensenig, the Chief Programmer for the team, estimated that the robot cost more than $7000 to build and took approximately 2500 man-hours to prepare it for the national event.
Students involved in the project that represented the University at the conference included: David Oliver (Team Captain), Computer Science, ITEC E/CS Minor; Bradley Sensenig, ITEC E/CS; Pauline Gemberling, ITEC E/CS; Michael Edkin, ITEC E/CS; Adam Fox, ITEC E/CS; Joshua Jordan, ITEC E/CS; Sean Farrow, ITEC GEN; Jake Girton, ITEC MECH; Mylinda Johe, TECH ED; Greg Betz, TECH ED; Brendon Fowler, TECH ED; and Curtis Rosche, PHYS.
2010 National Robotics Champs - MU Wins the Cup!
The Robotics Team (ATMAE Student Chapter) at Millersville University took top honors this year at The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) Conference’s Robotics Competition with their robot named SAM. SAM stands for Semi-Autonomous Marauder. “It feels great to finally win this coveted award” says Dr. John Wright, Club Advisor.
Dr. Wright designed the very first ATMAE robotics competition 10 years ago and had never won the Robotics Cup (overall prize) despite participating nearly every year since 2001 and taking second twice. This year’s competition involved designing a robot to locate and retrieve metallic cylinders in the sand on Panama City Beach, Florida. Four elements made this competition especially challenging:
- The Sand – The shifting and loose terrain made for many drive/traction/navigation issues.
- The Remote Driver Location – For the tele-operated portions of the task, the driver had no direct line of sight and was located more than 100ft away from the robot with his back to the beach.
- The Autonomous Portion of the Course – The robots had to locate and pick up the objects in an autonomous only zone outlined in the sand.
- The Competition – The task involved running two robots against each other at the same time in a double elimination style bracketed event.
While the performance part was certainly challenging, the evaluation for the grand prize was no less involved. Every team was judged on Performance (40%), Electrical/Control Methodology (15%), Construction/Design (15%), Poster (15%), and Technical Paper (15%). Millersville’s team won first place overall (2010 Robotics Cup National Champions), first place Performance, and first place Electrical/Control Methodology. Their Driver, Greg Betz also won the “Best Driver Award.”
The students put gobs of hours into this year’s entry. Bradley Sensenig, the Chief Programmer for the team, estimated that the robot cost more than $7000 to build and took approximately 2500 man-hours to prepare it for the national event.
Students involved in the project that represented the University at the conference included: David Oliver (Team Captain), Computer Science, ITEC E/CS Minor; Bradley Sensenig, ITEC E/CS; Pauline Gemberling, ITEC E/CS; Michael Edkin, ITEC E/CS; Adam Fox, ITEC E/CS; Joshua Jordan, ITEC E/CS; Sean Farrow, ITEC GEN; Jake Girton, ITEC MECH; Mylinda Johe, TECH ED; Greg Betz, TECH ED; Brendon Fowler, TECH ED; and Curtis Rosche, PHYS.
TECA Wins Big at Virginia Beach Conference
Thirty-two technology education majors and their advisors hosted this year's TECA Eastern Regional Conference in Virginia Beach October 17 - 19, 2010. TECA is the student organization for technology education majors and works closely with the International Technology and Engineering Education Association. Here are this year's results from the many competitions that took place over that weekend. As always, MU-TECA can be proud of their performance.
First Place Awards:
- Problem Solving: Andrew Ash, Josh Christman, Dale Shoop, and Tristan Noggle.
- Instruction Module: Marty O'Hora, Jon Jarrett, and Andrew Kauffman.
Second Place Awards:
- Manufacturing: Erica Schmuck, Cat Edwards, Blake Bardman, Kevin Bond, Ryan Hough, Brandon Beyer, and Nathan Hanson.
- Elementary Design: Leanna Carstetter, Chris Liddic, and Erica Schmuck.
- Automated Systems: Korbin Shoemaker, Mike Keller, Bryan Parrish, and Tom Flick.
- Poster Session: Korbin Shoemaker, Bryan Parrish, and Tom Flick.
Third Place Award:
- Transportation: Will Trombley, Joe Shapiro, Greg Betz, and Corey Yersak.
