Senior Engineers Get Creative

Summary: Calvin College senior engineering majors will showcase their final projects on Saturday, May 9 - everything from an unmanned plane equipped for aerial photography to a remotely-controlled submersible research vessel.

Full story, including pics and video, see: http://www.calvin.edu/news/2008-09/senior-design/

Senior engineers at Calvin College get to show off what they've been working on this past year. The Senior Design Banquet and Open House will be held from 4-6 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, in the Engineering Building.

15 senior design teams will present their projects at the open house, which is viewed as the capstone of a Calvin engineering education.

One of the more interesting projects, created by "Plane!," a team composed of electrical engineers Brett Pennings and Ian Hoffbeck and mechanical engineers Tom Kok and Christian Swenson, is an unmanned vehicle (a plane) equipped for aerial photography. Their group recently won the Calvin BizPlan competition with their concept for marketing the automated plane, which they believe will appeal to surveyors, cartographers and others who need aerial footage.

Pennings is pleased with how the prototype is working. "The images are sweet ... we got a lot of footage of the Ecosystem Preserve," he said.

"We got a picture from 200 feet up," added Kok, "and Christian (Swenson) is identifiable."

The projects have required long hours and a lot of hard work, but Calvin engineering professor David Wunder said it's a perfect bridge to the real world.

"The course is intended to transition them from class work to the real world, and engineering projects take months to years of real effort," said Wunder.

For more information on all 15 projects, including the award-winning 'The Marah Project,' which makes brackish water more treatable, see: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engineering/senior-design/

Contact David Wunder at 616-526-6337

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Received on Thu May 7 09:53:02 2009