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| Vol. 18, No. 35 | June 24, 1999 |
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ME design course highlights agricultural innovation projects
Students in the insect tracking project include (from left) Raymond Foulk,
George Sapna
and Justin Combs. They worked with Ryan McDonough.
Adel Abumohor (left) Jeff Acheson and Peter Sullivan (seated)
worked with Mike Tate on the silo project.
Students (from left) Nate Smith, Jon Hackett, Jim Wert and Alan Star worked on the pickle sorter.
The recent UD design course (described in the article on page 4) resulted in many technological innovations. "Each of the projects represented a winning experience for the students," said Dick Wilkins, mechanical engineering. "Every student helped someone do something they could not do before!"
An insect-tracking project placed second in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) competition at UD.
The students developed a surveillance camera for Keith Hopper, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an adjunct UD faculty member in entomology and applied ecology. Hopper wanted an insect-tracking machine for his work in identifying beneficial insects to control agricultural pests.
Other student inventions included:
- Adel Abumohor, Jeff Acheson, Peter Sullivan and Mike Tate worked to design a machine for Limin Kung Jr., animal and food sciences. The machine allows Kung to pressure-pack small test silos he uses in research. In his search for better microbial inoculants for preserving silage, Kung stuffs hundreds of silos every summer.
- Students Nate Smith, Jon Hackett, Jim Wert and Alan Star worked with Ed Kee, a UD extension specialist for vegetable crops, to design a mechanical pickle sorter for the pickle-packing industry. If a pickle is too crooked to fit into a jar, the computer orders the pneumatic system to blow it off the line, the inventors explained.
- Jason Dickey, Greg Frantz, Allison Martin and Nancy Meyer investigated automatic loading technologies for Dentsply Co. This team earned a first-place prize in the ASME competition.
- Brandon Fichera, B. Sean Gallagher, Greg Pease and Dave Rabeno worked on Hovercraft technology for the Delaware Aerospace Academy. They tied for third place in the ASME competition.
- David Geesaman, Ken Kammerer, Jin Ko and Mike Shaffer designed a compact, mobile lifting device for the Fraunhofer Co.
- Heat-pump design was the focus of a project involving students Rickardo Blackett, Andy Parke, Scott Quirico and Brian Zigmond.
- "Smart" tooling strategies needed by the Fraunhofer Co. were the topic of a project by Glenn Gardner, Andy Graybill, Jeff Roushey and Joe Staley.
- Brian Davison, Sean M. Gallagher, Pam McDowell and Prathan Yannarath conducted an air-conditioner experiment for UD faculty member Tony Wexler, mechanical engineering.
- Katie Kaser, Joanna Pirnot, Moshe Solomon and Lihong Xu worked on an ultrasonic mixer for Fraunhofer Co.
- Jeremy Freeman, Noel Goldstein, Justin Schaffer and Tom Winward designed a generator enclosure for CCM.
- A card-placing machine for GDA Digital Media kept Dave Conway, Jeremy Garey, Evan Kress and Rob Roche busy.
- Kevin Agnew, Greg Barber and Dave Rubin worked on an "automated spray patternator" for the DuPont Co.
-Pat McAdams
Photos by Duane Perry
