UA Engineering Students Receive Awards at ASME Regional Conference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Fourteen University of Alabama mechanical engineering students recently attended the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Regional Student Conference in Mobile. Several of the students won awards for their work and will represent the Southeast at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Anaheim, Calif., in November.

“We are very proud of our students because their hard work and dedication was recognized at this year’s conference,” said Dr. Beth Todd, associate professor of mechanical engineering.

Courtney Graham, a junior from Tuscaloosa, received first place in the Old Guard Oral Competition Presentation for her work on “Improvement in the Dynamic Buckling Analysis of Projectiles against Sand and Soil Targets.” She also won an award for Best Technical Paper in her bracket. Graham’s project is based on the work she did for Dr. Stanley E. Jones, Cudworth Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, as a Computer Based Honors Program project.

In the Student Design Contest, a team of four students created a device to retrieve simulated landmines from a mine field, which won first place. The device was designed and built under the supervision of Todd and Dr. Joey Parker, associate professor of mechanical engineering.

Students on the design contest project are:

• John Campbell – senior from Muscle Shoals
• Cade Festavan – senior from Helena
• Matt Fitzgerald – junior from Bay Minette
• Chris Odom – sophomore from Columbia

Thomas Saunders, a senior from Alexander City, is the Southeast’s nominee for the Charles T. Main Award. He will compete against 12 other students at the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition conference in November.

This award is given to a student who has contributed leadership and service qualities to the program and operation of a student section for more than a year.

Todd is the Southeast’s 2004 nominee for the ASME Outstanding Student Section Advisor award. This award will be presented at the IMECE conference in November. She received the 2003-2004 John Shortall Outstanding Student Section Advisor Award for the Southeast region.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 95 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.