• College of Engineering Open House Friday, November 6, 2009

• First Lego League Championship
  December 12, 2009  Stillwater High School Field House
  Oklahoma First Lego League Championship Hours: 
  7:00 am -         Volunteers arrive
  7:30 am –        Teams arrive
  8:30 am -         Opening Ceremonies
  9-4 pm -           Judging activities
  11:20-12:30 -   Lunch break for volunteers (Lunch provided to volunteers)

• The NRS Leadership Conference, Beyond Leadership: The Quest for Excellence, will be held December 2 in Oklahoma City at the Francis Tuttle Tech Center's Portland Campus.

  Topics will include Leadership 101 with Vince Orza, Creating Your Own Marketing, Using Social Media to Market Your Skills, and more! More information will be coming soon.

• Triangle Coalition Electronic Bulletin

  August 6, 2009 - Volume 15, Number 30 _Online Version_

  http://www.trianglecoalition.org/curtceb.htm

• Oklahoma’s CareerTech Real World Design Challenge Team Goes to Washington, D.C.

  Francis Tuttle Technology Center’s Junior Engineering Team - JET - will represent Oklahoma at the Real World Design Challenge in a new annual competition. The RWDC competition provides high school students with the opportunity to apply the lessons of the classroom to the technical problems currently faced in the engineering field. 

   

  Each participating state selected its top team to compete at the RWDC National Challenge, to be held March 20 - 22 in Washington, D.C.  The U.S. Department of Energy will provide the 10 winning state teams with expense-paid trips to the national competition. There, the top three teams will present their solution at the IMAX Theater at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

   

  JET members were recently selected to represent Oklahoma at the FAA Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City.  Judges were provided by Boeing, FAA, Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma and Tinker Air Force Base. Students were addressed and encouraged by State Lt. Governor Jari Askins at the awards ceremony.

   

  JET members are seniors in high school and students at Francis Tuttle in Oklahoma City in the Pre-Engineering Academy or Computer Aided Drafting programs. The students and their team positions are Alice Tholen, team scientist, and Sean Stephens, team leader, Edmond Santa Fe High School; Jessica Lilienthal, communications, Putnam City North High School; Andrew May, team mathematician, Edmond North High School; Jacob Niles, simulations, Mount St. Marys High School; and Leith Prise, simulations, Edmond Memorial High School.

   

  The purpose of the RWDC is to ensure the future of our nation's economic competitiveness by inspiring today’s students to become tomorrow’s engineers. The theme for the 2009 Challenge is “Aviation and Fuel Consumption.”

   

  The RWDC first took place at the state level with the Governor’s Challenge.  Student teams were asked to redesign an existing aircraft to maximize its fuel efficiency while meeting specific performance capabilities.  Students used professional engineering software to develop their solutions.

   

  At the state level, during preparation of their design, the students learned about the forces of flight, 3-D modeling and testing by using a virtual wind tunnel.

   

  The National Challenge adds several components to the original aviation design challenge.  Teams are asked to develop a marketing presentation explaining how and why they arrived at their proposed solution.  Presentations will be made before an expert panel representing professionals from industry, academia and the federal government.  Winners will be chosen based on the teams’ design solutions, presentations and project journals.

   

  Oklahoma career and technology centers, which provide manufacturing, aerospace and engineering education, are a natural fit for this type of competitive event, according to Oklahoma CareerTech Director Phil Berkenbile.

   

  “Both adult and high school students in Oklahoma’s CareerTech system benefited from the software donations and partnerships developed through the Real World Design Challenge,” Berkenbile said. “This is a tremendous advantage for our students and ultimately, Oklahoma’s economy.”

   

  The RWDC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, in partnership with the State of Oklahoma, Parametric Technology Corporation, Cessna Aircraft Company and the Federal Aviation Administration.

   

• MNTC*s Pre-Engineering Team Earns Spot in National Competition

MNTC*s Pre-Engineering Team Earns Spot in National Competition Moore Norman Technology Center*s Pre-Engineering Team 1742, the SHOCKWAVE, earned first place at the FIRST Robotics Regional Robotics Competition held last week at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City and will now travel to Atlanta, Ga. to compete for the World Championship April 15-18. The 26 member student team and instructors Jason Rausch and Art Waldenville, competed against 49 other teams from Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas in the three day event. Team 1742 also won two prestigious design awards: The Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award and the General Motors Industrial Design Award.  The Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award celebrates an innovative control system which provides unique machine functions. Team 1742*s camera target tracking system enabled its robot to be the only robot in the competition to purposely score during the autonomous portion of the matches. The General Motors Industrial Design Award celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively achieves the game challenge. String Theory*s clean lines and elegant look, coupled with robust operation and compact design earned Team 1742 its second design award of the competition. SHOCKWAVE finished the qualifying regional matches ranked as having the number-one robot, and selected Francis Tuttle Technology Center's Team 1561, the RoboDucks and Tulsa Technology Center's Team 2004, the ThunderDucks, to go to the finals. After seven final matches the SHOCKDUCK Alliance emerged as regional winners. Team 1742 is also set to compete in the inaugural FIRST Robotics Dallas Regional March 12-14 at the Southern Methodist University Campus. Team 1742 is made up of sophomore, junior and senior students from partner high schools in Moore and Norman. The following students are team members: Harrah High School: David Koonce. HomeSchool: Todd Moran. Moore High School: Levi Barris, Whitney Deras, Ian Hall and Bryson Simer.  Norman High School: Kevin Axinn.  Norman North High School: JD Baugher, Will Campbell, Patrick Hylton, Melinda Merritt, Casey Mixon, Nick Nance, Tanner Nees, Sean Sawey, Michael Swan and Daniel Tinney.  Southmoore High School: Trey Parkey, Andrew Runyan, Clint Shepherd and Justin Swink. Westmoore High School: Jordan Harrod, Caitlin Hulin, Parker Lusk, Martin Orozco and Christian Smith.  FIRST Robotics stands for: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and the competition is a unique *varsity sports for the mind,* designed to help high school-aged students discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and scientists can be. Since 1989, the FIRST Robotics Competition has grown from 28 teams to over 1,680, including teams from 11 foreign countries. Over 42,000 students and 23,500 mentors participate in the program today. Learn how the competition is played at www.usfirst.org ( http://www.usfirst.org/ ).

Students and instructors from Team 1742 have dedicated themselves to modeling gracious professionalism, and communicating the value of the FIRST Robotics experience across the state of Oklahoma. Shockwave has made presentations to state legislators, the Noble Foundation, the Oklahoma State School Board Association, the Oklahoma Career Tech Convention in Tulsa, the Oklahoma Pre-Engineering Conference, CareerTech Directors, to schools outside its district to help start a team, local school boards, chambers of commerce, and Rotary and Lion*s Clubs. Team 1742 has made trips around the state to help other teams, and was fortunate to win the 2008 Johnson and Johnson Gracious Professionalism Award at the 2008 OKC Regional. They have been helped by many teams in the past, notably Team 476 and 1561.  SHOCKWAVE thanks its sponsors and others who have contributed to its success. Team 1742 is sponsored by MNTC, Boeing, the University of Oklahoma College of Engineering, York/ Johnson Controls, and Mickey Clagg. They have been mentored by Nic Grady from Boeing, and OU engineering student Tim Long. They have also been helped by MNTC*s Welding, Precision Machining, Carpentry, Graphic Design, and Automotive Service Programs.  Although FIRST Robotics carries an expense for the school, it is a life changing activity for those who participate. Students who participate in FIRST Robotics are: 50 percent more likely to enroll in college  Twice as likely to pursue a degree in science or math  Three times more likely to major in engineering More than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities  Learn more about MNTC*s Pre-Engineering class, Team 1742, or about how you can help Team 1742 get to the World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia at www.team1742.com ( http://www.team1742.com/ )

By Anna Trowbridge, Media & Creative Coordinator, Moore Norman Technology Center