The winning CSU, Chico students, seniors Kevin Looney and Michael Walker, qualify for the national design competition in Nashville in January. The student-built vehicles had to retrieve a rock, avoid a maze of barriers, and deposit the rock in a target area. The vehicles were graded according to weight, speed, and accuracy. Two years ago, CSU, Chico hosted the Regional Student Conference of the ASME, and one of our student teams came in first in that competition as well. Looney and then-senior Mike Davis teamed up and won with their machine that moved two ping pong balls and a golf ball from a starting point into a box.
Students typically work half a year on a project for the design competition.
Looney and Walker built their rock-retrieval vehicle as their required senior project. The other CSU, Chico student teams in the design competition were Nathan Drury and Pete Andreotti, who came in fourth, and Scott Norris and Phil Headley, who placed fifth. Drury also came in third in the ASME's Poster Competition. The winning rock-retrieval vehicle was demonstrated by its student builders on April 8 in Langdon Engineering Center.