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Marquis Scholar David Homsher ’04 (Doylestown, Pa.) has mastered complicated engineering concepts, worked as a construction inspector for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and designed cubicles at Lockheed Martin. But until he began his senior year, he’d never spent much time working with model cars or airplanes.
Homsher was among a group of seven mechanical engineering seniors who learned model-building skills quickly this year on the Leopard Aviation design team. His teammates were Chris Harty (Kingston, Jamaica), Kwabena Agyeman-Manu (Accra, Ghana), Farah Arabe(Lima, Peru),Ryan Sakmar(Doylestown, Pa.), James Sarruda (Sewell, N.J.), and Eli Golden (Bensalem, Pa.).
The group placed 13th among 29 entries with their radio-controlled model airplane in the Society of Professional Engineers’ Aero Design East competition, held April 16-18 at the University of Central Florida in Deland, Fla., 40 miles north of Orlando.
The students’ performance is impressive considering the fact that while they took on the challenge as a one-year senior project, their competitors had years of experience in preparing specifically for Aero Design East.
“The Aero Design competition was especially rewarding,” says Homsher. “It was exciting to see our airplane compete against those built by other colleges, universities, and technical schools. To see it perform so well was truly a tribute to all of the hard work that our team put into the project.”
“The scores were based on design report, presentation, and weight lifted,” Homsher adds. “We lifted 16.29 lbs in the competition.”
Other mechanical engineering senior projects this year have included a human-powered vehicle, high-performance parts for a Honda racing car engine’s intake manifold, and an experimental apparatus for testing the properties of stainless steel.
The airplane group was advised by Erol Ulucakli, associate professor of mechanical engineering, whose experience in supervising senior projects includes the BattleBot that competed on national television in its championship run a few years ago. He also is advising mechanical engineering major Ing-Chea Ang ’04 (Penang, Malaysia) in a yearlong honors research project to improve a method of killing tumors through energy produced by electrodes.
“They did a nice job with breaking down the work,” says Ulucakli. “The real push came when the students started building the plane. There were lots of pieces of balsa (wood) that had to be cut and glued together according to the profile, which turned out to be tough. They all worked very hard and achieved their goal. I’m also grateful for the pilot who successfully flew the plane and gave an enormous amount of building knowledge.”
The complexity of designing and building a flying craft from scratch attracted Golden to the project.
“The fact that they assured me that it was possible was more than enough to get me to sign up,” he says. “I value this project not only because we used the ‘tools’ we were supposed to pick up in the classroom over the past four years, but because we learned how to use them in future projects…This project was valuable time well spent.”
The students worked together to design the plane using the computer program AutoCAD before taking on testing and construction during the second semester.
“Parts of the project were assigned to different people,” explains Homsher, who worked on the engine and edited the team’s first-semester design report. “We met weekly to integrate the components. We tested different propellers to figure out which gave us the best thrust reading with the most RPM.”
As with any group project, success depended largely on the cohesion of the group, says Golden.
“Among the obvious assigned tasks, it was the responsibility of each of us to keep one other focused, on track, and altogether happy. If anything, the conversations in the mechanical engineering shop, during the long drive to Florida, and during every meal we shared were indicative of successful group cohesion.”
Homsher says the experience helped the students understand that working on a team involves much more than just engineering skill.
“It was hectic,” he admits. “We learned how difficult it is to adjust schedules and meeting times. It was like it would be in the workforce.”
The plane, constructed of balsa, spruce, plywood, and carbon fiber and covered with monocoat plastic, has a six-foot-long fuselage and 10-foot wings. The team and licensed radio-control pilot Louis Hayden, a professional engineer from Bethlehem, Pa., tested the aircraft time after time before leaving for the competition.
“When I started this project in the fall, I had minimal knowledge of aerodesign,” says Sarruda. “Over the last two semesters, I’ve learned a lot about aerodesign and teamwork. Working on a team teaches you to keep deadlines, budget your time, and be responsible. Over the course of this project I feel I have improved in this area and I have a better understanding of project management. I will also never look at a plane the same way.”
The complex project has been a major addition to Sarruda’s challenging workload this school year.
“It can be hard at times,” he says. “I try to work my hardest at everything I do, and I was surely tested for two semesters. But in the end it was worth it, because the plane has taught me so many things about leadership, group work, and time management. In my job next year I will be in more situations where I have to demonstrate the latter three skills than situations where I will be given a calculator and asked to take a written exam.”
Some team members sacrificed taking the Fundamentals of Engineering exam to attend the competition, which was held on the same weekend.
“I had such a rough time making a decision, I did not even get refunded because I missed the deadline,” says Sarruda. “I understand how much the FE exam means for my future career, but I decided it was more worthwhile to go to the competition. I would feel that my two semesters of hard work would be wasted if I did not get to compare our airplane design to the designs of other engineering groups.
“I also wanted to compare how our plane flew with other groups. In the end, I feel like I made the right decision. The competition gave me closure on the whole airplane project, as I now better understand our mistakes and our successes.”
After graduation, he will work at Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, N.J., in the guided munitions department.
Homsher will work at Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, N.J., where he will spend two years in the firm’s Operations Leadership Development Program, which includes six-month stints in four different departments. He interned there last summer and worked for PennDOT at Philadelphia International Airport during summer 2002 and the January 2003 interim session.
Homsher says those experiences, plus his engineering classes at Lafayette, prepared him well for the design project. He has high praise for Michael Paolino, Dana Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who taught him in two thermodynamics courses.
“He’s just fantastic,” Homsher says. “He was so good at passing information to us. It’s just so easy to remember what he taught. He’s so detailed in his presentations.”
Homsher, a graduate of Father Judge High School in Philadelphia, is a resident adviser and a member of the campus chapters of the Society of Automotive Engineers and Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honors society. He also serves as intramural sports chair for Watson Hall.
Chosen from among Lafayette’s most promising applicants, Marquis Scholars receive special financial aid and distinctive educational experiences and benefits, including a three-week, Lafayette-funded study-abroad course during January’s interim session between regular semesters. Marquis Scholars also participate in cultural activities in major cities and on campus, and mentoring programs with Lafayette faculty.