Monthly Archives: October 2012

SCE to host the inaugural FIRST Tech Challenge

KC Stem Alliance has announced the following in a recent press release:

UMKC School of Computing and Engineering will host the Greater Kansas City’s FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) regional competition on Sun., Feb. 3, 2013 at Swinney Recreation Center, located at the university’s Volker Campus in Kansas City, Mo. The competition is free and open to the public and will run from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. “We are thankful that UMKC’s School of Computing and Engineering offered to host the first Greater Kansas City FTC regional competition,” said Paul Borchardt, regional director of Kansas City FIRST. “ Due to this type of community support, FIRST Tech Challenge will join FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Jr. LEGO League, and FIRST Robotics Competition as official programs in Greater Kansas City. The FTC Robotics competition provides an opportunity for students to apply real-world math and science, develop strategic problem solving, organizational, and team-building skills. FTC is the fastest-growing FIRST program. Last year, more than 1,000 teams participated nationwide. Participation is expected to be even greater this year.

DBIA Student Team Takes First Place at Regional Competition

Our Design Build Institute of America (DBIA) student chapter pulled out all the stops, scrambling in one short week to submit a 30 page SOQ (Statement of Qualifications) for a theoretical Design-Build project entry for their region’s DBIA student competition. Despite the short timeline our UMKC team, Design-Build Performance Partners, won first place with a total of 1,906 points at the regional competition. They were awarded $1000 and free registration to attend the national competition in New Orleans on November 7th, 8th, and 9th.

The project was to design a performing arts center on a university campus in Oklahoma following various guidelines outlined in the RFQ. The guidelines included things such as an overall strategy about how we were going to go about the project, adjacency diagrams, initial cost estimate, organizational breakdown, etc. The team only had a week to complete and submit the SOQ from the time the RFQ was first issued. The design-build project delivery method is different from the traditional Design-Bid-Build delivery method and this competition was orchestrated to test the UMKC DBIA team’s knowledge and understanding of these differences.

SCE congratulates DBIA team members, Amanda “Mandy” Leipard – Civil Engineering undergrad; Joshua Boehm – Urban Planning & Design, Economics undergrad, and Erwin Quintanilla – Civil Engineering graduate student and team captain, Sean Rivers – Civil Engineering undergrad. SCE civil engineering undergrad Andrew “Andy” O’Laughlin provided additional help. Chuck Williams and Dr. Ceki Halmen are the team’s faculty advisors

SCE Fall Picnic Enjoyed by Students, Faculty and Staff

SCE students took a break on Thursday, September 27, enjoying fantastic fall weather at the SCE fall picnic hosted by the SCE Student Council. The annual picnic is an SCE tradition and is well attended by SCE students, faculty and staff. SCE Student Council officers plan and coordinate the picnic each year. Thank you Carson, Grant, Cody, Arturo, and Matt!

2012-2013 　Student Council Officers From Left to Right
Carson Buchanan – Administrative VP, Grant Meyer – President, Cody Kaspzyk – Comptroller, Arturo Pino Quintana – Executive VP, Matt Moore – SGA Representative

Robotic Roos Begin Work On Soil Sampling Robot

Robotics are the driving force of mankind,” said Eddie Pogosov, senior electrical and computer engineering major and robotics team Project Lead at UMKC. Each year, the robotics team constructs an entire robot from start to finish over the span of four to six months using spare parts purchased online. This year, the team’s seven officers and 20 additional members will build the robot for an annual national competition, which will be held in April . . . “We have a different theme each year. This year we’re creating a robot capable of soil sampling,” Pogosov said. “Whoever creates the robot that is able to soil sample the quickest wins.” . . . Each year, the robotics team constructs an entire robot from start to finish over the span of four to six months using spare parts purchased online. This year, the team’s seven officers and 20 additional members will build the robot for an annual national competition, which will be held in April. [Above from the 9/17/12 UNews article “Campus profile: Robotic Roos-Engineering whiz kids build soil sampling robot from start to finish” – see the complete article to learn more about the UMKC IEEE Robotics team and their activities].

MO-Delta Receives Membership Award At Tau Beta Pi National Convention

UMKC’s Tau Beta Pi chapter, called MO-Delta, received a Tau Beta Pi Membership Award for excellence in conducting a chapter’s primary mission, membership. MO-Delta’s President Kelsey, attending the Sept. 27-29, 2012 Tau Beta Pi National Convention in Lexington, KY as UMKC’s voting delegate, accepted the award. The convention provided leadership training to the student delegates attending and an opportunity for delegates from all parts of the country to meet and socialize with each other. Chapter representatives are afforded a special opportunity to meet with National Officials and to learn first-hand about problems, solutions, and opinions on the role of TBP on the nation’s campuses [from convention website]. Dr. Deb O’Bannon is MO-Delta’s faculty advisor.

Tau Beta Pi is the only engineering honor society representing the entire engineering profession. It is the nation’s second-oldest honor society, founded at Lehigh University in 1885 to mark in a fitting manner those who have conferred honor upon their Alma Mater by distinguished scholarship and exemplary character as students in engineering, or by their attainments as alumni in the field of engineering, and to foster a spirit of liberal culture in engineering colleges. There are now collegiate chapters at 238 US colleges and universities, active alumnus chapters in 16 districts across the country, and a total initiated membership of 535,605.