The Institution launches student chapter in Texas

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Texas group supports senior projects at the University of Houston College of Technology

At the University of Houston College of Technology (UH), students are required not only to design their senior projects, but to raise funds and fabricate a prototype as well; all within a nine-month (two semester) time period. The IMechE Texas Group has a history of supporting UH senior projects by students active within the Institution to raise the profile of the IMechE and support the next generation of engineers, and this school year was no exception.

From August 2013 to May 2014 three MET (Mechanical Engineering Technology) students decided that instead of a race-car, robot or submarine, they would build something useful to future students – an apparatus to conduct lab sessions on mechanical vibration, fatigue and modal analysis. These students, calling themselves Team Vibramatic, welded a mechanically isolated workbench, designed and fabricated two fundamentally different shakers to cover a broad output range and programmed a Virtual Instrument within National Instruments LabVIEW software to control the devices and analyse specimens with the click of a mouse. Before graduating, they outlined a number of experimental procedures and successfully conducted a modal analysis study with the device.

This testing station is one of many projects involved in a movement of students devoting their senior projects to educational apparatus. A laboratory, lead by engineering technology professor, Raresh Pascali has been outfitted with many student-built test devices, including a water tunnel, wind tunnel, torsion testing machine, rotating I-beam strain monitor and more. Projects currently in progress include a Rankine cycle steam turbine trainer and small-scale distillation tower.

This year also marked the beginning of the IMechE-UH Student Chapter. Founded by students from the College of Technology and Cullen College of Engineering, the chapter was formed to improve interaction between colleges, and address the need for more hands-on instruction. During its first semester the student chapter recruited 17 new affiliates and hosted a welding workshop to help students with the fabrication of their projects.

Find out more about the Texas group.