糖心Vlog

Following an intensive four-day engineering competition, students at 糖心Vlog scored a top 15 finish, placing 12^thamong a host of international colleges and universities at the 2011 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Mini Baja Competition held at Stony Lonesome鈥檚 OHV Park near Birmingham, Ala. Georgia Southern鈥檚 12^th聽place finish is the highest the University has achieved at the Baja competition since it began competing in 2002.聽聽The Eagles finished ahead of teams including Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, University of South Carolina, Auburn University, and the University of Alabama, to name a few. 鈥淲e are thrilled to finish in the top 15 especially competing against major engineering programs from around the world,鈥� said Brian Vlcek, professor of mechanical engineering, program coordinator, and Mini Baja team faculty advisor. 鈥淭his is a volunteer project, not a class assignment, and our students spend hundreds of hours engineering, building and testing their vehicle.聽聽This engineering competition is a great demonstration of the skills they learn in class at Georgia Southern.鈥� Georgia Southern鈥檚 Eagle Motorsports, comprised mostly of engineering students from the University鈥檚 Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) program, designed, developed and fabricated the 2011 SAE Baja competition vehicle.聽聽Powered by a Briggs & Stratton engine, this year鈥檚 vehicle featured a variety of innovative features including a custom suspension and a handcrafted gearbox.聽聽鈥淭he gearbox was a big part of our success this year,鈥� commented team captain and MET senior Wes Powell.聽聽鈥淚n past years, teams have used unreliable off-the-shelf gearboxes or chain-and-sprocket arrangements.聽聽We selected the optimum gear reduction ratio for all of the events we would face in Birmingham, and then we designed and fabricated our own gearbox on campus.鈥� The 2011 competition kicked off on Friday, April 15 with registration, technical and safety inspections and static events (cost and design presentations). Ignoring more than five inches of rain, six inches of red mud and several tornado scares on Friday, the team easily passed technical inspection, defended their vehicle in both a cost and design presentation and began preparations to compete in the dynamic events on Saturday. The weekend competition began Saturday with a series of events including: land maneuverability, suspension/traction courses, a hill climb, acceleration and an 鈥淢鈥� shaped water maneuverability test.聽聽Powell drove the car to a ninth place finish in the maneuverability event.聽聽Junior Anthony Rainey was behind the wheel when Georgia Southern finished sixth in suspension and traction.聽Junior Simon Galloway drove the car to a 19^th聽place finish in the water event, while senior Marvin Duggan placed eighth in acceleration. The premier event of the competition was Sunday鈥檚 four-hour endurance race.聽The course was approximately 1.75-miles long and included a wide variety of obstacles and challenges such as deep mud, hills, off-camber turns, tight wooded areas, banked turns, a water obstacle and jumps. It鈥檚 not over. During the competition, there was a discrepancy between the number of laps the team completed versus the number they were credited with.聽聽鈥淕eorgia Southern actually completed 15 laps during the endurance event, but only received credit for 13,鈥� said Vlcek.聽聽鈥淲e have submitted an appeal, and the records are being reviewed.聽聽If the count is corrected, Georgia Southern will actually finish in sixth place rather than 12^th.鈥� The University will begin offering Bachelor of Science degrees in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering this fall.聽聽For more information on Georgia Southern鈥檚 Eagle Motorsports Team or to donate to future projects, visit:.