BYU NewsNet - BYU engineering students compete in Payload Drop

Mechanical engineers and students gathered Thursday evening to watch small vehicles zip around the Garden Court as part of the Payload Drop competition.

The competition was hosted by the BYU chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The group tries to hold a competition every year. Tom and Andrea Ames, siblings from Albuquerque, N.M., majoring in mechanical engineering, designed this year’s competition.

“It was inspired by a competition I saw in high school,” said Tom Ames, vice president of ASME. Ames wrote the rules while sister Andrea took charge of the actual competition.

According to the contest rules, the competition consisted of designing and making a vehicle to travel a length of fishing line and stop at predetermined positions to release cargo. The rules were amended after the original intended cargo was not available.

“We’ll be using 1-inch diameter wooden balls because they don’t sell bouncy balls in Provo,” Tom Ames said. “I spent four hours looking last Saturday.”

The competition was open to all students. Fifteen entrants competed for prizes in the Garden Court of the WSC Thursday evening. Judges came from the officers of the group.

First place went to Jeremy Wade, a junior from Rexburg, Idaho, majoring in manufacturing. He received a surround sound system.

“I’m a tinkerer,” Wade said. “I didn’t really care about the prizes; I just wanted to get out there and do it.”

Other winners included Timothy Luskin, a sophomore from Salt Lake City majoring in mechanical engineering, and Vonn Holyoak, a senior from Ft. Thomas, Ariz., majoring in mechanical engineering. Luskin won an iPod touch, while Holyoak won a TI-89 calculator. Other students received prizes for participating. The prizes were made available through donations.

“Dow Chemical has given us a good sum of money to hold this event,” said Andrea Ames, activities officer for ASME. “They want to encourage people to design, and want to inspire the next generation of engineers.”

The competition is one of many held by ASME. Other events included a trebuchet contest and a tin-can airplane competition.

“We’re trying to get people to think outside of the box,” Tom Ames said.