Our Design Teams

This year, the ASME Student Design Club will be participating in three competitions: the ASME Student Design Competition (SDC), the ASME Innovative Additive Manufacturing 3D Challenge (IAM3D), and the NASA Lunabotics Challenge. Similar to last year, each team will be working from now until the competition at the end of the academic school year, except for Lunabotics team. This is a new project introduced to the ASME design teams that will take place over the course of two years.

With growing teams and new opportunities arising, the ASME Student Design Club appreciates any support that you give. There is a lot that goes into these projects including materials, parts, and most importantly, time. Team members strive each year to be as successful as they can by getting help from each other, the engineering department, and donors like you. Thank you!

Here is more information about what each team will be doing this year.

The Lunabotics Team is tasked each year with designing and prototyping a rover-like robot called a lunabot. It must be capable of completing tasks similar to a Lunar construction robot. Specifically, it must be able to transport "moon dust" by digging it up and moving it to a specified area to be shaped into a berm. This team will start competing in two years, then each year after that, to create a strong foundation for a successful design and to prepare for future competitions. This year, their goal is to develop a fully functional prototype. This will require machining aluminum parts and purchasing simulated moon sand to assemble the lunabot. Funding is important for each component of the process and would pave a path for their success.

The SDC Team this year is required to create a device that is able to sort ball bearings by size and material. They must do this using full autonomy, meaning the device must be able to sort the ball bearings completely on its own without someone controlling it. This form of design has never been approached by the design teams and members are eager to begin designing and testing their prototypes. Funding will support them as they attack new challenges and test different possibilities to win the competition.

The IAM3D Team is continuing their project from last year's competition. This is to build a completely 3D-printed drone (excluding motors and propellers) and use a first-person POV control system to pilot and race other schools' drones. The IAM3D team will look at the faults from last year's competition to improve the drone and compete for first place in the spring. By analyzing design methods, and purchasing newer and better parts, they have a good chance this year to be number one!