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Will Andersen
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Will Andersen was selected at the summer annual meeting of ASME to receive two scholarships, the $1,500 John and Elsa Gracik Scholarship and the $1,500 Sylvia W. Farny Scholarship through the ASME Auxiliary. Andersen is an ME senior from Watertown, WI planning to graduate in the spring. He is serving as chair of the student ASME chapter this year.
The FutureCar team pose with their champion car and trophies after returning from Washington, D.C. last summer.
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For the second year in a row, the UW's hybrid vehicle, affectionately known as the Aluminum Cow, won the national FutureCar Challenge. The student-modified diesel-electric car claim ed top honors during seven days of testing and judging in Detroit early last summer, achieving an over-the-road fuel economy of 63 miles per gallon and near-ULEV emissions without compromising performance, safety, or consumer acceptability. The final part of the competition was a road rally from Detroit to Washington, D.C. to display the cars on Capitol Hill. The UW vehicle completed the 500+ miles on one tank of fuel.
Now that the FutureCar program is done, it will be replaced by the Future-Truck 2000, also to be sponsored by the Department of Energy and the Big Three auto manufacturers. Fifteen college teams will be challenged to convert a Chevy Suburban sport utility vehicle to meet emissions and fuel-economy goals by next June's competition at GM's Proving Ground in Arizona.
Pi Tau Sigma officers at the national convention's banquet included Steve Conners, vice president; Rick Thompson, treasure; Jenny Topinka, president; and Julie Marshous, convention/historian chair. In the center is keynote speaker Mary Ellen Heyde from Ford.
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Eric Weisbrod, an ME senior graduating in December, presented his honors thesis at the 10th annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics in November. The title of Eric's thesis was "The Design and Analysis of a Vibratory Cleaning Process for Advanced Optical Reticles." Eric's advisors were Professors Roxann Engelstad and Ed Lovell, and he has been working in the Computational Mechanics Center within the ME department.
Five members of the Pi Tau Sigma chapter attended the organization's
national convention in Atlanta in late October, working with national
officers and other student chapters to learn ways to sharpen their
goals for the coming year. Those students were Julie Marshaus, Jenny
Topinka, Steve Conners, Max Siker, and Rick Thompson. Keynote speaker
of the event was Mary Ellen Heyde of Ford Motor Company, a major
sponsor of the convention. A major highlight for the Madison students
was their successful bid to host the 2001 National Convention.
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ME Newsletter is a periodic publication of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Mechanical Engineering. Correspondence should be sent to the address below.
ME Newsletter
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Editor: Gail Gawenda
gawenda@engr.wisc.edu Designer: Lynda Litzkow
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