{"id":11968,"date":"2012-04-13T08:58:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T12:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=11968"},"modified":"2012-04-13T08:58:17","modified_gmt":"2012-04-13T12:58:17","slug":"calamityville-to-host-national-afrl-engineering-challenge-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2012\/04\/13\/calamityville-to-host-national-afrl-engineering-challenge-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Calamityville to host national AFRL Engineering Challenge Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Military forces have been looking for new ways to scale fortress walls since the Greek army laid siege to the city of Troy during the Trojan War in the twelfth century B.C. And for one week in April, engineering students from the three service academies and universities across the nation will descend on Wright State\u2019s Calamityville to take up the challenge.<\/p>\n

Wright State University\u2019s National Center for Medical Readiness (NCMR) will host the Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s (AFRL) 2012 Service Academy and University Engineering Challenge April 16-20, at its Tactical Laboratory, Calamityville, in Fairborn.<\/p>\n

Engineering students and their faculty advisors from 17 universities nationwide and three service academies will be competing in this year\u2019s challenge to design, fabricate and demonstrate a system to allow battlefield airmen, along with their equipment, to scale buildings or mountain faces under a variety of conditions.<\/p>\n

The engineering students will be required to develop a system that will enable airmen to climb rock faces and concrete\/adobe walls of 60 feet or higher, preferably without the need to grapple over the top edge of the structure. The winning device must be reusable, accommodate a 300-pound load, permit multiple pitches during the climb and be faster or less strenuous than current climbing methods\u2014all while allowing the operator to do other tasks while climbing, including using a weapon, radio or other equipment<\/p>\n

Each team of five or more undergraduates will work with trained climbers who will demonstrate their device by climbing one of the 90-foot concrete towers at Calamityville. A panel of judges will determine the winners.<\/p>\n

Among the universities competing are Wright State University, the University of Dayton, Arizona State, Ohio State, Colorado State and Johns Hopkins University. The three service academies, West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy will compete separately.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalamityville is the perfect location for this challenge,\u201d said Glenn Hamilton, M.D., senior director of the National Center for Medical Readiness. \u201cA state-of-the-art, collaborative training and research facility, Calamityville is located on the site of a former cement plant, which has multiple 90-foot silos on site along with excellent access and acreage to set-up their equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three service academies will compete against each other on Monday, April 16, and the universities will compete Wednesday through Friday, April 18-20. AFRL sponsors the annual challenge to promote and sustain university research and education focused on innovative military systems and related technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe annual Academy and University Challenge is a cornerstone of AFRL\u2019s Innovation Portfolio, allowing us to tap into the energy and fresh ideas of young engineers to tackle a challenging problem facing our troops,\u201d said Alok Das, Ph.D., senior scientist for design innovation at AFRL. The challenge not only exposes these students to real world engineering, but is also exciting because of the competitive demonstration of their engineering solutions, he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can sense the enthusiasm and energy in the teams. They are eager to show their innovation and engineering prowess at the Calamityville event,\u201d said Devon Parker, AEDC\/XPR, Arnold Air Force Base Engineering Development Center, who is serving as the challenge program manager. Parker had high praise for the support of the WSU staff in preparing for this final demonstration, which is expected to result in a successful culmination of this year\u2019s Academy\/University Challenge.<\/p>\n

The universities competing are:<\/strong>
\nArizona State University
\nAuburn University
\nBrigham Young University
\nColorado State University
\nJohns Hopkins University
\nMichigan Technological University
\nOhio State University
\nTexas Engineering Experiment Station
\nUniversity of Akron
\nUniversity of Dayton
\nUniversity of Minnesota
\nUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
\nUtah State University
\nWestern Carolina University
\nWright State University<\/p>\n

Combined team:
\nTennessee State University
\nPrairie View A&M<\/p>\n

Service academies:<\/strong>
\nWest Point
\nThe Naval Academy
\nThe Air Force Academy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students from 17 universities and three service academies will design, fabricate and demonstrate a system to scale buildings or mountain faces under a variety of conditions. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":5107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,725,2016,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-home-news-sidebar","category-medicine","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11968"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12282,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11968\/revisions\/12282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}