ME Student Organization: ASME
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at San Diego State University’s mission is to provide our members with academic and career resources to improve their university experience and professional preparation. Our chapter is focused on providing opportunities for engineering students to network with industry professionals, gain project and leadership experience, and offer insight and opportunities for internships, mentorships, and careers. The majority of the activities ASME is involved with have been transitioned to a virtual platform via Zoom. This year the club has two project teams, involved in the Student Design Competition (SDC) and the Human Powered Vehicle Competition (HPVC).
The Student Design competition encompasses engineering students from across the country to showcase their innovation through engineering design, analysis, and fabrication. SDC challenges student engineers with a new project every year. This year’s competition is to build a robot that uses a single1.2 V AAA battery that is solar and/or wind powered to be remotely controlled to carry weights across a course. The team has focused on project management and material procurement to fully design and manufacture a robot within a 8 month timeline. This year’s team has been able to accomplish this by using super capacitors in series to store the energy that is used to power the bot. The team is also using 6 step-up converters to increase the voltage to power the controller. The biggest challenge this year has been the group’s design and development in a virtual setting. The team has consistently overcome the challenges set against the team regarding and has currently made it to the first bracket rounds for the top 16 teams. The team hopes to continue its success and enter the following rounds of elimination.
The Human Powered Vehicle Competition offers students an opportunity to design and build an efficiently engineered vehicle for everyday use. Each year the team tackles new problems and obstacles; This year’s project no exception. The team has been collaborating via Zoom to design this year’s human powered vehicle and work through issues with the steering and braking systems. Currently, the team is beginning to safely manufacture the chassis of the bike. Due to the campus restrictions, the team has turned to local machine shops to outsource some of the more complicated components. Working with vendors and limited equipment has helped teach the team to design for assembly and manufacturability in the preliminary design phases. Students in HPVC have adapted with virtual learning and have remained on track with project management planning. Over the course of 9 months, the team has successfully designed and begun to manufacture a bike that is fully powered by the human user and will be ready to ride by the end of the Spring 2021 semester.
ASME holds General Body Meetings every other week during the Fall and Spring Semesters. Students of all majors are invited to attend the meetings which begin with announcements about opportunities including but not limited to upcoming ASME events, career fairs, and other academic resources. The announcements are followed by updates from our Chief Engineers leading the SDC and HPVC project teams. The remainder of the meetings are dedicated to presentations given by engineering representatives, from different companies each week. Discussion and questions are highly encouraged, and students are welcome to interact virtually with their microphones or by messaging in the online chat. In addition to our General Body Meetings, ASME has hosted social events via Zoom including game nights. These events welcome students to mingle with their peers with the goal of gaining relationships in the distance learning environment. Lastly, the biggest event of the year has been ASME’s Mentor Night, an event with 8 engineering professionals with a wide range of experience, including a guest speaker from ASME Regionals, Tom Costabile. This event hosted about 35 students and gave each student the opportunity to ask questions and speak with each representative. The mentors ranged from 2-40 years of experience, many of which being SDSU Alumni. This event made a tremendous amount of connections between students and mentors, and was completely executed through Zoom breakout rooms. The event provided students feedback on their resumes, insights to working for bigger vs smaller companies, and answers to questions and curiosities regarding the journey to professionalism. ASME has worked hard to provide the same resources virtually, as it always has in person. In the coming years we hope to continue to make a valuable impact on the engineering community, and maintain a professional reputation at SDSU.
Reported by the ASME SDSU Student Chapter.
