Cypress, Texas (May 11, 2020) Lone Star College-CyFair’s two engineering student teams took the first two spots in the Top Design Team category again at the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC) Spring 2020 Virtual Design Challenge.
“Last semester, Team C.R.A.T.E.R. won first and Team C.O.S.M.O.S. took fourth in this overall design team category,” said Dr. Yiheng Wang, LSC-CyFair professor of engineering and both teams’ advisor. “This shows both teams have outstanding students and have been consistently doing excellent jobs.”
Team C.R.A.T.E.R. (Cultivating, Retrieving, Analyzing and Testing Experimental Rocks) took first in Best Poster and Best Oral Presentation (Video and Q&A), while Team C.O.S.M.O.S. (Collecting and Obtaining Scientific Moon Objects and Specimens) took second and third respectively; they tied for first in Best Report; and in Best Peer Review Team COSMOS took second while Team C.R.A.T.E.R. took fifth.
In addition, being named among the top seven design teams overall, Team C.O.S.M.O.S. members each earned $1,000 scholarships for first place and Team C.R.A.T.E.R. members earned $750 scholarships for second place.
All teams completed projects and provided great presentations under extreme circumstances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams faced difficulties of college closure, having to collaborate remotely, no access to on-campus technology and equipment, delayed or no access to fund for purchases, delayed shipping of their purchases, and probably a lot less guidance from advisors who were also busy with other teaching responsibilities, said Dr. Wang.
“Our students never lost their determination or focus, worked hard and well with each other remotely, and presented their work the best way they could,” she said. “Their creativity and their confidence certainly show in their videos.”
As for the competition itself, the TSGC transferred the traditional in-person showcase to a virtual one, Dr. Wang explained. Student teams had to record videos in lieu of oral presentation and written reports were judged in lieu of models. Then the 18 showcase participants joined a web conference, team videos were shown, and students were available for live Q&A.
View the videos of Team C.O.S.M.O.S. at https://youtu.be/ySZ3u5TdPu4 and Team C.R.A.T.E.R. at https://youtu.be/XXs_TNIxxQ4.
The journey for these teams does not end with the TSGC Design Challenge. As in the previous two years, they co-participate in the nationwide NASA Micro-g NExT Program Design Challenge and this year both teams advanced to the next level of that challenge.
While the student teams will not travel to NASA to test their prototype at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) this summer, they will stay focused on their goal of manufacturing a metal prototype to ship to NASA in September and look forward to remotely directing the testing by the NBL divers.
Last semester the student teams did the design challenge project as part of ENGRH 1304 Honors Engineering Graphics class, and this semester as part of a Honors Engineering Seminar. The spring challenge award-winning Team C.O.S.M.O.S. members are Ashley Guerrero, Abdullrahman Ali, Steve Finke and Derek Finke and Team C.R.A.T.E.R. members are Edgar Flores, Xavier Shockney, Humberto Leal, Kary Meadows, Robert Clough and Daniel McGee.
“These outstanding honors students should be so proud of all that they have achieved this year in the classroom and in the state design competition," said LSC-CyFair President Dr. Seelpa Keshvala. “We congratulate them on this wonderful accomplishment and wish them continued success as they compete in the nationwide NASA Micro-g NExT Program Design Challenge in September!”
Registration for LSC-CyFair’s summer and fall classes are underway. Go to Lone.Star.edu/registration. For information on the Engineering Program email Cy-FairEngineering@LoneStar.edu.