NACE International and the U.S. Department of Defense, Corrosion Policy and Oversight Office, hosted the inaugural University Student Design and Applied Solutions Competition, the first student competition focused on designing technology for corrosion control. The two-day event hosted engineering students from the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), the University of Akron, Alfred University, Texas A&M University, and the United States Military Academy at West Point. The USAFA team took top honor with its innovative corrosion inspection system prototype.
Each team brought unique technological solutions to the competition. In the end the top performing teams included:
1st Place—USAFA
2nd Place—United States Military Academy at West Point
3rd Place—Alfred University
The competition was created to give students an opportunity to apply knowledge learned in the classroom to real-world problems by replicating conditions encountered by corrosion professionals.
Teams showcased their technologies in oral presentations followed by a practical application of their devices. Designed to operate autonomously, each team’s device navigated a small entrance of a 4x6 steel and aluminum structure. Once inside the structure each device had to detect the presence of corrosion (within one square inch) and report the data back to the team.
Students’ autonomous, corrosion detection systems were presented to judges Harvey Hack, FNACE., past president of NACE International and senior advisory engineer at Northrop Grumman, Ron Latanision, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor at MIT, and Christopher Scurlock, Ph.D., senior consultant at LMI and executive secretary of the Technical Corrosion Collaboration. The judges were impressed with the students’ engineering skills, ingenuity, teamwork, and their ability to solve a complex problem under pressure.
Solutions included the USAFA’s first place winning "Mother Ship" robotic manipulation of an inspector bot consisting of two robotic platforms, using high quality video and camera feed, along with other subsystems to allow for the thorough location and documentation of corrosion damage. Other successful entries included a tethered robotic inspector and a quad-copter capable of flying into a structure to conduct an inspection.
“After seeing such innovative solutions in this first year of the competition, we are looking forward to what the years ahead will hold,” says Bob Chalker, CEO of NACE International. “This competition has the potential to change the future of the corrosion industry.”
For more information visit www.usdasc.com.
