ACES to host design challenge

Next week, the Amarillo College Engineering Society will host a design competition.

The competition will require contestants to construct two-wheeled cars powered only by rubber bands.

“This is something where you can’t just throw a lot of money and power at it; you really must think outside of the box,” said Ron Bennett, a mathematics instructor.

The competition will be at noon April 8 in the lobby of the Lynn Library on the Washington Street Campus.

The challenge, open to all AC students, will require them to explore new ways to solve problems.

“The competition helps you to learn how to expand your horizons,” said Jeremy Taylor, an ACES member and an engineering major.

“Everybody is going use the same materials and only one rubber band, and you have to challenge yourself to use that rubber band to make it go farther,” he said.

ACES and its contests provide the opportunity for students to get a taste of different major options.

Bennett said people specializing in engineering and science are needed in the long run and that there are not enough people in those fields.

“I encourage people who have any interest in engineering and science to come and see how it works,” Bennett said. “They might get ideas.”

Tyler Martin, also an ACES member and an engineering major, was a mechanic for eight years, which inspired him to get into heavy equipment engineering and eventually into the automotive industry.

ACES hosts speakers at its monthly meetings, and members take various trips so they are able to see the real world of engineering and experience the various fields.

“People of a higher status in the engineering field come and give insight to the certain fields of engineering, like when we went to the Nickels plant where they burn natural gas,” Martin said. “It let me see that I did not want to be an electrical engineer.”

Martin said the goal of the rubber-band car competition is to get the axle completely centered so that one side isn’t creating more drag from the vibration. He said there are a lot of little particulars from front-wheel drive and not rear-wheel drive.

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