Engineering Design Contest Winners, 2007

Award	Winners	Cash Prize Amount
SCANA Award for Engineering Prototyping	Jazmynn Outen and Shellie Golden, Keenan High School, Columbia SC	$500
SC Department of Education Office of Career and Technology Education Award for Engineering Design using Inventor software	Jazmynn Outen and Shellie Golden, Keenan High School, Columbia SC	$500
Palmetto Partners for Science and Technology Award for Engineering Communications, for the best written and oral presentation	Kelli McQueen and Bernard Martin, Keenan High School, Columbia, SC	$500
USC College of Engineering and Computing Grand Award for the best all-around entry	Kelli McQueen and Bernard Martin, Keenan High School, Columbia, SC	$1,000

PLTW Engineering Design Challenge

Contest Overview

The objective of this contest is to design one of the elements of a robot that will compete in the 2007 FIRST Robotics competition. Contestants can decide which of two elements they will design – either an end effector (the part that grasps game objects) or the positioning mechanism for the end effector (the arm or other mechanism that places the game object in position to score points). Contestants will produce a design drawing, a written description, an oral presentation, and a reduced-scale working prototype.

Notification

The contest was announced during the kickoff meeting for the 2007 FIRST Robotics Competition on January 6 at the USC College of Engineering and Computing. Detailed information will be posted on this site.

Eligibility

In this inaugural year of the competition, eligibility is limited only to student teams from schools in SC that have elements of the PLTW curricula in place. This challenge can be completed by an individual student or by student teams of not more than 2 persons. Any number of teams can be formed at any eligible school, but then each school must select one local winning entry to be submitted for the statewide competition. Because this contest emphasizes a well-rounded approach to engineering, each entry must be a complete submission of all four deliverables as identified below.

Entry

Notice of intent to compete must be returned to EngineeringDesignChallenge@engr.sc.edu no later than January 19, 2007.

Final deliverable products other than the scale model must be delivered as electronic documents via e-mail to EngineeringDesignChallenge@engr.sc.edu during the time window from 12:01 am Monday, February 19 to 11:59 pm Friday, February 23.

The scale model shall be delivered in person at 9 AM on Friday, March 30, 2007 to the Engineering Design Challenge table on the concourse of the Colonial Center in Columbia SC (during the FIRST Robotics Competition). Scale prototypes will be displayed to the public during the Palmetto Regional Competition. Hardware prototypes, with ribbons indicating winners, will remain on display at the Colonial Center through Saturday, March 31 at 2 pm. Hardware prototypes can be retrieved by entrants at that time. All entries not retrieved by the conclusion of the Palmetto Regional Competition will be destroyed.

Each contestant should be prepared, at 9 am on Friday, March 30, 2007 to make their oral presentation to the judges, based on the PowerPoint file sent earlier as one of the deliverable products. Not all contestants, however, will be chosen to make oral presentations. Those who are chosen to present will be so notified upon delivery of their scale model to the Engineering Design Challenge table. Contestants should anticipate that their presentation will be scheduled between 9 am and 12 noon that day.

Deliverables

Each entry will consist of four items.

1. No more than four pages of engineering design drawings (8" x 11" paper) created using Autodesk Inventor, that show the parts and the assembled system in such a way that its construction and functionality can be clearly discerned.

2. A written document (which may include figures) in MS Word or PDF format of no more than three pages (minimum 11 pt font) that describes the mechanism and its operating principles, features, and characteristics.

3. A 6 minute Power Point presentation describing the same information as in the three page document.

4. A reduced-scale prototype that can be manipulated by hand to demonstrate how it works. Moving parts should be moveable, but no actuators are required to be a part of the submission. The scale of the mechanism should be chosen so that it fits entirely within a 12" cube.

Prizes

The prize committee anticipates awarding 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes in each of the two submission categories – "positioning arm" or "end effector," as follows:

• The SCANA Award for Engineering Prototyping, for the best scale models (Deliverable 4)
• The SC Department of Education Office of Career and Technology Education Award for Engineering Design, for the best design drawings (Deliverable 1)
• The Palmetto Partners for Science and Technology Award for Engineering Communications, for the best written and oral presentations (Deliverables 2 and 3)
• The USC College of Engineering and Computing Grand Award for the best all-around entry

Awards will be presented at the Colonial Center in Columbia, SC during the FIRST Robotics Competition on Friday, March 30, 2007 between 12:30 and 1 pm. Award amounts are anticipated to be as follows: