{"id":303,"date":"2014-02-06T13:10:21","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T13:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/?p=303"},"modified":"2023-02-22T20:15:05","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T20:15:05","slug":"student-competitions-aerodef-manufacturing-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/2014\/02\/06\/student-competitions-aerodef-manufacturing-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Competitions: AeroDef – Manufacturing Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"aerodef2.gif\"<\/a>In the 26-year history of the AeroDef Manufacturing Challenge (formerly WestTech), it had never been done: a clean sweep of the competition\u2019s three top categories by a single university. But on March 18, 2013, CSUN did the near-impossible, claiming the grand prize, first place in the University division and the William B. Johnson \u201cLeadership in Manufacturing\u201d Award, which went to James Hunter.<\/p>\n

The college entered two teams in the competition, which is sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and both were coached by Mark Rajai, assistant professor of manufacturing systems engineering and management, who set his sights on the grand prize\u2014something CSUN had never won before.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI challenged them,\u201d he says. \u201cI told them I\u2019m not concerned about other universities. You\u2019re going to be the best. I\u2019m concerned which of you two teams will win the grand prize.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A total of 23 colleges and universities competed in the event, and each team was required to do a 15-minute poster presentation in front of a panel of five judges from industry, display its product and submit a report. One of the innovations Rajai introduced this year was a three-minute video for each presentation, which he felt was key to their success. One CSUN team presented an automated lifting system designed for automotive hobbyists and small automotive repair shops and the other an assisted gripping rig for people with limited strength in their hands. The assisted gripping rig won the grand prize, and the automated lifting system won first place in the University division. James Hunter, recipient of the William B. Johnson \u201cLeadership in Manufacturing\u201d Award, had been nominated by faculty and was a member of the automated lifting system team.<\/p>\n

\"aerodef.gif\"<\/a>\u201cPersonally, I believe this is one of the best groups I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d says Ileana Costea, chair of the Department of Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management. \u201cThey were extremely motivated and made it work for themselves. I also think the instructor pushed them to do a lot of research and put a very strong emphasis on documentation and presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The automated gripping system also fared well on the homefront, claiming the top prize in the 2013 Senior Design Project Showcase in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 26-year history of the AeroDef Manufacturing Challenge (formerly WestTech), it had never been done: a clean sweep of the competition\u2019s three top categories by a single university. But on March 18, 2013, CSUN did the near-impossible, claiming the grand prize, first place in the University division and the William B. Johnson \u201cLeadership in Manufacturing\u201d Award, which went to James Hunter. The college entered two teams in the competition, which is sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and both were coached by Mark Rajai, assistant professor of manufacturing systems engineering and management, who set his sights on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}