Wesley Williams

http://www.kellertechnology.com/

Several faculty and students in the Applied Energy and Electromechanical Systems program enjoyed a tour of Keller Technology Corporation in Huntersville today.  KTC does the custom design, engineering, manufacture, assembly, and testing of manufacturing systems for industrial and medical customers, as well as precision equipment for scientific customers.  It was nice to see a lot of the elements of the curriculum (PLCs, robotics, machine vision, etc.) present in various builds that we saw on the tour.  Special thanks to William Bryan for hosting us today.

• Cameron Nye is a recent graduate of the Electrical Engineering Technology program and will be starting his MS in Applied Energy and Electomechanical Systems this fall.  He is working on the Mission Critical Operations project doing PLC programming and lab exercise development.
•  Josh Warne is a senior in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program and is working the Magnetic Gearing team, focusing on the gearbox testbed.

Matt Calvin was awarded his masters degree this past weekend after successfully defending and completing his thesis.  Matt’s research into comparisons between flux focusing magnetic gear topologies and mechanical gearboxes has been helpful in identifying promising applications for magnet gears.

North Carolina’s own team 900 had a strong showing at this past weekends FIRST Robotics Competition Championships.  I was an engineering mentor when Team 900 first started out and it is good to see how far they have come from the boxes on wheels that struggled to move in those early seasons.

Details on their Facebook page

Dynamic Design Competition Could Benefit U.S. Military | UNC GA.

2015 3D Printing Competition Winners from left: Dr. Brandon Conover (Practical Scientific Solutions, Inc.), Henry Goodell (UNC Chapel Hill), Patrick Fain (UNC Charlotte), James Haig (UNC Charlotte), Nathan Lambert (UNC Charlotte), Eric Fleischhauer (UNC Charlotte), Anthony Brock (USASOC), Dr. Stephen Lee (U.S. Army Research Office).

Belated congratulation to Patrick Fain and the rest of the UNC Charlotte team for taking 1st place in the 3D printing design competition last month.  The team utilized their combination of additive manufacturing experience and military service to devise an improved air drop container.  The container design employed a latticed interior to dissipate the energy of impact, allowing the delivering helicopter to travel faster and at higher altitudes during the delivery, reducing the threat of hostile fire.  The team envisioned the container being used to deliver ammunition, medical supplies, or even blood to special operations forces who were actively engaged with hostile forces.

Updated:

A more thorough release from the College of Engineering, detailing the team and their winning design.

http://engr.uncc.edu/news/49ers-win-3d-printing-competition

and more details

http://northcarolina.edu/?q=news/2015/04/student-designed-supply-pack-wins-first-place-3d-printing-competition

Best of luck to Patrick Fain as he represents UNC Charlotte in a 3D printing competition over 2 days in Fayetteville, sponsored by the US Army Research Office, US Army Special Operations Command, University of North Carolina, and 3D Systems.