Mechanical, Automotive & Materials Engineering

Rocketry students reach new heights in international competition

mechanical engineering students holding their rocket in the hands

A team of mechanical engineering students placed fifth in the world's largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition.

The Spaceport America Cup attracted 121 teams worldwide to compete June 18 to 22, 2019 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. University of Windsor Rocketry Team member Katarina Berg says the competition has multiple categories based on motor type and either a target altitude of 10,000 or 30,000 feet. The UWindsor team chose to compete in the 30,000 commercial off the shelf motor, solid propulsion category against 19 teams.

“We came in fifth in our category and 31st in the overall competition. Our actual apogee was 26,517 feet,” Berg says. “It was absolutely an amazing experience to be able to connect with and learn from universities all over the world. To see all the different approaches to the same common problem is very intriguing.” 

History Channel seeks out engineering prof for expertise on Windsor Hum

Engineering professor Colin Novak is been filmed by History Channel

A new History Channel show about the world’s most fascinating and inexplicable mysteries featured a University of Windsor engineering professor and his investigation into one of Windsor’s infamous enigmas — the Windsor Hum.

The intermittent rumbling sound has plagued local residents for the past seven years. In 2013, Colin Novak, an associate professor in the mechanical, automotive, and materials engineering department, was contracted by the Government of Canada to lead a study on the source of the hum.

A Los Angeles film crew from UnXplained, a show hosted and produced by William Shatner, visited campus to learn more about Dr. Novak’s Noise Vibration and Harshness-Sound Quality Group, which set up low-frequency noise monitoring stations across the city’s west end and portable infrasound arrays to record noise within the hum’s frequency range.

Students unveil pod ahead of international hyperloop competition

Students unveil pod ahead of international hyperloop competition

A team of University of Windsor and St. Clair College students is heading to California to compete in Elon Musk’s SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition.

The uWinLoop and SCCLoop duo is one of 21 teams worldwide to advance to the finals and compete July 21 in Hawthorne, California, at SpaceX headquarters.

Dozens of supporters gathered in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation Friday, July 5, to send off the team and watch the engineering, business, and marketing students reveal the pod they’ve been working on for more than a year.

“We’re looking forward to putting Windsor against the best on the world stage,” says third-year mechanical engineering student Stefan Sing, uWinLoop’s president and founder.

Aerospace engineering student aiming high

Aerospace student Atilla Saadat holds an avionics bay, which will log the altitude of a rocket

A UWindsor student studying aerospace engineering is one of four province-wide to receive an Ontario Aerospace Council scholarship.

Atilla Saadat, a third-year mechanical engineering student in the aerospace stream, received a $2,500 scholarship for academic achievement and his work outside the classroom. Saadat is the founder and space systems technical lead of the University of Windsor Space & Aeronautics Team (WinSAT), a multi-disciplinary group of more than 30 students building a space-ready 3U Cube Satellite for Low Earth Orbit to compete in the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.

“His work has already demonstrated a tangible impact at UWindsor, as WinSAT aims to increase the space and aeronautics engineering opportunities at our institution,” says Afshin Rahimi, an assistant professor in the University’s Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering.

Engineering faculty and students recognized for research excellence

Dr. Jill Urbanic receives an award in the category of Mid-Career Scholars/Researchers

The University of Windsor recognized the accomplishments of more than a dozen engineering faculty and students at the school’s annual Celebration of Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity.

The awards ceremony, held March 7 at Alumni Auditorium in the CAW Student Centre, recognized scholars and researchers university-wide in all stages of their careers.

“Today’s celebration is the sign of a thriving academic community, where people are flourishing in their research, scholarship and creativity, and receiving recognition and support for the extraordinary work they do,” said interim president Douglas Kneale.

“What is so impressive is our collective bench strength in research and scholarship. We have outstanding students, emerging scholars, and established researchers, singular efforts and large collaborative projects, local, provincial, national, and international honours and success across all disciplines.”

UWindsor's first Hyperloop team advances in international competition

Hyperloop team

UWindsor’s Hyperloop team is one of 52 teams worldwide to advance in a competition that encourages innovations in high-speed transportation.

The team formed in 2017 and hasn’t stopped working towards its goal of creating an electrically powered linear induction motor to propel a levitating pod through a sealed tube at speeds over 500 km/h. The group’s initial design work has helped them advance in SpaceX’s Hyperloop Pod Competition.

“We’re very dedicated to this,” says Stefan Sing, the team lead and founder who’s in his third year of mechanical engineering. “We’ve invested heavily in the linear induction motor and haven’t stopped making revisions. The team has been doing a stellar job.”

The team of 25 meets five times a week and ranges from undergraduate to graduate students studying mechanical, electrical and industrial engineering, and computer science. 

Engineering projects demonstrate application of knowledge to real-world problems

The exciting part of working on a project redesigning the intersection of California Avenue and Wyandotte Street is the possibility of seeing it implemented, says Emma Teskey.

A fourth-year civil engineering student, she was part of a group that suggested several changes to the pavement and traffic signalling systems that would make the crossing safer for pedestrians and smoother for vehicles.

It was one of more than 60 projects displayed by graduating engineering students during Capstone Design Demonstration Day, Friday in the Centre for Engineering Innovation.

Teskey and her teammates — Abigayle Diemer, Kailee Dickson, Curtis Lanoue, and Sarah Zaarour — suggested altering the traffic signals so that cars and trucks are stopped in all directions while pedestrians cross, a system known as the “pedestrian scramble.” They also proposed adding wide white stripes to the crosswalk pavement and relocating a transit stop so buses do not block the intersection.

Scholarship keeps student's legacy alive

Luigi Zanettin posing.

Most people say they’ve never met anyone quite like Luigi Zanettin.

As a son, he always carved out time to fish and hunt with his dad and once gave up six months’ worth of Saturdays to help his father refurbish a fire truck for firefighters in Africa.

As a husband, he bought his wife flowers every week and worked two jobs while attending school so they could build a future together.

As a student, he never missed class and his curiosity-driven questions propelled him to the top of his program. Even after he was delivered a blow in 2013 when he found out he had a rare form of cancer, he never slowed down.

“When he had every reason to say I’ve had enough, he fought against it,” said Dr. Bill Altenhof, a University of Windsor mechanical and materials engineering professor who mentored the 27-year-old through graduate studies. “He just simply would never quit; I was awestruck by his level of determination.”

$15,000 scholarship to support engineering graduate research at UWindsor

Faculty of engineering accepting 5000 donation from Cavalier ToolA Windsor tooling company announced Wednesday a new scholarship that will support graduate research in mechanical, automotive and materials engineering at the University of Windsor.

Dr. Patti Weir, UWindsor’s Dean of Graduate Studies, said Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing (CTM) Ltd.’s $5,000 donation will be matched by the provincial government’s Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program and leveraged to a total of $15,000.

“This award will allow us to train future generations of engineers who will continue to make contributions in manufacturing,” said Weir.