Preparing the next generation of engineers
Distributors continue to support young designers by sponsoring academic research programs around the world
In a move to support the growing partnership between industry and the academic community, electronic components distributors are stepping up to the plate by sponsoring academic research programs, competitions and general outreach efforts for undergraduate and graduate students in the United States and abroad.
Avnet’s ninth annual Avnet Tech Games Competition held earlier this year in Arizona is one example, as is TTI Inc.’s recent career day event in which it hosted more than100 students from Texas A&M University’s industrial distribution program. The Avnet competition challenges students from across the state to create products and systems that will improve our quality of life. TTI’s program was designed to introduce undergraduates to the role of the electronic components distributor in the supply channel.
TTI’s sister company, Mouser Electronics, has thrown its hat in the ring by sponsoring two academic competitions that encourage technical free thinking and innovation in design.
Mouser is an official sponsor of Warwick Mobile Robotics’ WMR Rescue Robot Project team, which competed in the RoboCup Rescue German Open in Magdeburg, Germany, earlier this year. Part of the UK-based University of Warwick, WMR is an ongoing student research project devoted to mobile robotics applications. Its robot designs are used to advance research into applications that will help disaster victims around the world.
RoboCup is an international joint project to promote artificial intelligence, mobile robotics and related fields. Its ultimate goal is to promote research and development of robotic technologies for use in search and rescue in large-scale disasters.
The WMR team won the Best in Class Mobility award at the Germany competition this year.
Mouser also sponsors the UCLA Rocket Project, in which a group of the school’s undergraduate and graduate students design, manufacture and launch a Hybrid Propulsion Experiment (HyPE) engine-driven rocket in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC), held each June in Utah.
The IREC is sponsored by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association and is designed to get college engineering and science students involved in hands-on rocket design, construction and operations. The competition is divided into two categories of rocket launches: basic and advanced.
There were no successful flights in the advanced competition this year, but there were two winners in the basic competition: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University placed first and California State University, Long Beach, placed second. Teams from the United States, Canada, Brazil and Turkey competed in this year’s competition.
“Mouser is proud to help inspire the innovations of the next generation,” Larry Johannes, Mouser’s vice president of strategic marketing said in a statement announcing the WMR and UCLA sponsorships. “This company has always been driven by the desire to put the newest and most advanced electronic resources in the hands of the industry’s best design engineers, young and old. We are delighted to sponsor the WMR Rescue Robot Project Team and the UCLA Rocket Project Team as they push the boundaries of functional robotics and hybrid rocket propulsion.”
“These students are the next generation of top design engineers and it is important that we support them now and as their careers develop,” Johannes said.
--Victoria Fraza Kickham, Contributing Editor, SourceESB
For more information on Warwick Mobile Robotics, go to http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/meng/wmr/, and for information on the international RoboCup competition, go to http://www.robocupgermanopen.de/. To learn more about the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition, visit http://soundingrocket.org/default.aspx.
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