Chad Kingsolver, Frankfort, Ind.

Major: Mechanical Engineering Technology

Activities

Intramural sports
Tau Alpha Pi honor society, engineering technology honor society

Henry Zhang鈥檚 Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory (MDL) is home to the state鈥檚 largest self-built 3-D printer. In fact, it was used to create many of its own pieces.

A 3-D printer is one of the necessities for additive manufacturing. It gives manufacturers the flexibility to produce parts with complicated features and with a lot less expense than casting a part. It is also a convenient way to make a prototype, directly converting a CAD 3-D-modeled design. It has many applications in future manufacturing industry.

Overcoming classroom barriers. Salting wintry roads with less waste. Powering a lawn mower with water.

Senior design students tackled these projects in ECET 49700 (Project Design and Development, Phase II), which is offered each semester as a capstone course for electrical engineering technology majors.

Five students were honored during the public display of the projects May 4:

In the last year, the has experienced a chaotic mix of meetings, simulations and computations. Team leader Haley Moore wouldn鈥檛 have it any other way.

鈥淚 love the chaos. I love not knowing what鈥檚 going to happen day to day. I love the unknown,鈥� Moore said. The mechanical engineering technology graduate student from Hanover, Ind., thrives on the problem-solving aspect of the competition.