Four UNC Charlotte Lee College of Engineering students recently won a 3D printing design competition sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office. They were part of a team that also included one other college student and an active duty Army representative
Forty-niners James Haig and Nathan Lambert (master’s students in mechanical engineering), Patrick Fain (bachelor’s student in mechanical engineering technology) and Eric Fleischhauer (doctoral student in mechanical engineering) were part of the team that won the competition to develop ideas and concepts for items that would be useful in a military operational environment and for which 3D printing would offer an advantage.
Five teams of students from across the University of North Carolina system, as well as Fayetteville Technical Community College, joined military and civilian representatives from the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) and other U.S. Special Operations Forces commands in the 3D design competition. Hosted by the University of North Carolina, sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO), and organized and facilitated by Dr. Brandon Conover of Practical Scientific Solutions, this first-of-its-kind 3D printing competition was a two-day event held at FTCC’s Spring Lake campus.
“Our team chose to try and tackle the problem of resupplying troops in contact with the enemy,” said Haig. “Currently this requires a helicopter to come in low and very slow in order to drop a bag filled with ammunition or other needed supplies. We designed a rapid prototype container that would in theory, be able to be dropped by a helicopter at 150 feet going around 90 knots, decreasing the danger to them. We demonstrated a prototype printed on the Projet (3D) printer by dropping it on the ground from a height with a precious payload of corn puffs; it broke apart, protecting the contents. We won first place.”
The team’s final presentation is here.
Competition participants included 11 undergraduate and graduate-level students in biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial and systems engineering and materials science programs from UNC Charlotte, UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State University and North Carolina A&T State University. Seven students in manufacturing and simulation and gaming programs at FTCC also participated.