Experiential Learning

The Dow SRCI, perhaps unique to SVSU, has funded projects to stimulate students to greater achievement in their post-graduate careers. Professors and instructors have also encouraged students to present their work at professional conferences. As of 2011, more than 270 students had participated in regional, national and international conferences. More than half of that number presented papers at these events. At least 14 students published their work as well.37

Experiential Learning

Some of the more exciting enterprises at SVSU are those that bring recognition in national and international competitions. Consider the SVSU firefighting robot team. In 1998, SVSU hosted the national Student Robotics Automation Contest. Soon after, Russell Clark, professor of electrical & computer engineering, began advising student teams that compet-

Advised by Russell Clark, professor of electrical & computer engineering, student teams annually design an autonomous robot that navigates through a maze in order to extinguish a fire (candle). The students compete at Trinity College’s Annual Fire Fighting Robot Competition, which takes place in April at Trinity College in Connecticut. This team won the contest in 2007.

ed each spring in the international contest at Trinity College in Connecticut. In 2003, SVSU finished 16th and, in 2007, Clark’s team won the competition.

Then there was the Society of Automotive Engineers race car. The idea began in 1993 when a team of student engineers (Otto Schultheis, Rod Sanderson, Dave DuPree, Sue Brown, Bob Keitzman, and Mary Armitage) built a car to compete in the Midwest Regional Mini Baja Vehicle Competition in Ohio. Despite a potentially ominous beginning — one of the car’s wheels did not fit snugly, and “we were afraid it would come off,” Schultheis recalled — the team secured a new axle at the last minute and departed for Marysville, Ohio. The team placed 13th in a field of 65 teams. It earned third in manufacturability, second in structural integrity and first in originality.38

This successful beginning gave birth to the university’s SAE Formula Race Car team. An SVSU team first competed in the Formula SAE design competition in 1998 at the Pontiac

More than a decade of work with student-built, Indy-style race cars led to an SVSU professor earning statewide accolades for the effort. Brooks Byam, the mechanical engineering professor who founded SVSU’s Cardinal Formula Racing program in 1998, was honored in May 2013 with the Carroll Smith Mentor’s Cup during the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers Collegiate Design Series at Michigan International Speedway. The award is the namesake of legendary racer Carroll Smith and is given by past award recipients. SVSU over the years has finished in the top 20 in FSAE competitions including sixth in 2002, eighth in 2005, 14th in 2008 and 18th in 2010. Byam’s 2013 racing team placed second in the world in acceleration en route to a 51st place finish out of the top 120 international college programs.