Murray
State Fields Team in Parker Hannifin Chainless Challenge
Murray State University is one
of ten universities in the United States that has a Parker Motion Control
Lab. Dedicated in 1993, murray's lab has received maintenance grants
continually to date. Each year Parker requires the universities to report
on the operation and new additions to the labs, however this year they
held a competitive challenge between the Parker Lab schools. Announced
last year, the Hydraulic Bicycle Competition specified student teams
consisting of no more than 5 students and required a preliminary design
submission in January for a build or not build decision for the August
Competition. Murray fielded two teams with the best team advancing to
the competition. The following were the overall results.
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The ranking of the universities is as follows:
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1st
Place:
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University
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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2nd
Place:
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Murray
State University
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3rd
Place:
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Cal-Poly
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4th
Place:
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University
of Akron
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5th
Place:
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Western
Michigan University
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6th
Place:
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University
of California-Irvine
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7th
Place:
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Purdue
University
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8th
Place:
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University
of Cincinnati
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9th
Place:
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Cleveland State University | |
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The
University of Wisconsin-Madison did not participate in the challenge
this year.
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Murray
State fielded a team with one sophomore and four juniors while most
of the other universities had teams with seniors or graduate students.
MSU won three of the team events: the 1/10 mile Drag Race, Workmanship
(best looking and built bike), and Safety & Reliability. MSU's bike
was the only bike that could cover the entire course (some grades were
12%) while not having to dismount the bike and push. Of the remaining
seven events, University of Illinois won five and Cal Poly and Univ.
of California Irvine won the remaining two. MSU took home $2,750 of
the $25,000 prize money available. MSU's team, which will return next
year in full, consisted of:
Nick
Dempsey - Junior
Matt Wells - Junior
Shane Black - Junior
Ryan Horstmeyer - Sophomore
Ryan Sebastian - Junior
Jim Benson -
Faculty Advisor
Jim Barnett - Staff Advison
All team members are in the Electromechanical Engineering Technology program.
