Thomas students will earn wings in engineering contest

 

Thomas Worthington High School students are becoming aviation engineers and delving into jet design in the 2010 Real World Design Challenge.

Technology education teacher Rod Pierce said three teams of seven students each are involved in the challenge.

"The competition is very complex," he said. "It will be a notable feat just for the students to submit a solution to the problem."

The problem is a nationwide challenge for students to design and optimize a business jet tail, sponsored by the United States Department of Energy with a host of local aviation partners.

"Aviation design is a matter of tradeoffs," Pierce said. "In order for the students to create an empennage (tail section) that will balance the aircraft and minimize the weight and drag of the overall aircraft, they must take many factors into account. The winning design will cause the least amount of aerodynamic drag and will weigh the least. This will allow the aircraft to move through the air using the least amount of fuel.

"The students will need to understand the problem constraints, study and understand many concepts behind aviation design and hypothesis about different designs," he said. "They'll construct the designs using CAD software, test them using sophisticated fluid dynamics software, evaluate the results and make the necessary changes and improvements until the ideal design is achieved -- or they run out of time."

Teams have until Jan. 25 to submit design solutions, said Cecilia Lammers of the Ohio State University Airport.

The Thomas teams started their research at OSU airport.

"Research for the Worthington teams began at the OSU airport as students toured the airport to see and understand the design and operational considerations of different jet aircraft tail configurations," Lammers said. "Students also visited the Aeronautical and Astronautical Research Laboratory to learn more about aerodynamics and flight."

Lammers said one winning team will be chosen from Ohio to compete in the national challenge. The U.S. Department of Energy will host a Real World Design Challenge national event in Washington, D.C., in March.

Lammers said the goal of the nationwide challenge is to provide students with the framework and background to compete effectively in this century's workforce by encouraging students to apply STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) lessons to technical problems in the workplace.

Pierce said most of the students competing are from the district's Project Lead the Way engineering classes.

"The PLTW classes are ideal training classes for this type of challenge," he said. "The PLTW students routinely participate in smaller-scale challenges and competitions that are similar to the Real World Design Challenge. They are also familiar with Autodesk Inventor, a 3D CAD program which is used in the challenge and will be a huge benefit to the students."

Pierce said he wanted his students involved in the challenge because they will work with engineers and engineering tools to solve a complex, real-world problem.

"Students are not only learning about many aerodynamics concepts but are using industry-standard software to construct their solutions and communicate with mentors throughout the country," he said.

Pierce said each team will submit a portfolio of work at the end of the competition.

"This portfolio will contain their final design, supporting documentation including mathematical calculation and concepts used in the development of the design," he said. "They are also judged on how effectively they work with their mentors, who are engineers from the industry who have volunteer to work with the different teams."

Pierce said he's proud of the work the students have put into the challenge so far.

"All the work and meetings have been done outside of school so the students have had to transport themselves and schedule themselves to attend the meetings and field trips that we have had so far," he said. "Before we are done, we will have many more meetings and cram sessions."

Participation in the challenge means students may gain a "valuable bullet" for their college applications, Pierce said.

"Many colleges are looking at more than just a test score these days and something like this can really help a school get a better view of the whole student," he said.

"Many colleges are looking at more than just a test score these days and something like this can really help a school get a better view of the whole student."

--Rod Pierce