P&O3 2011: The Multicopters
In our educational system the future civil engineers spend a lot of time in classroom gathering theoretical knowledge in their respective technological fields. However, any good engineer should also be capable to solve practical problems using this wealth of theory. Hence each year the students of the second bachelor year are given a practical problem to solve during the P&O3 sessions. As promised after the last P&O3 edition, this year’s students were challenged to conquer the skies by building an unmanned areal vehicle (UAV) in the form of a multicomputer.
Additionally the UAV’s size was limited to half a meter and a budget of 200€ per project was provided. In order to reduce cost the individual groups were allowed to use the MTM material waste stream. In the end 6 teams of 6 students decided to accept this challenge.
The final results of this project were showcased at PMA on the 14th of December. As usual this demo-day attracted the attention of professors, daily supervisors, interested technical support staff and the general public. The latter group seemed to contain a healthy amount of parents and grandparents. All these inquisitive test subjects are the perfect opportunity for the students to hone their presentation skill. There is no task more difficult than to explain the workings of a complex device to a novice in the field.
The students not only have the chance to develop engineering skills but this assignment is also an occasion for the students to get acquainted with MTM. In that manner they discover not only the vast world of material science, but also get inspired by the work done at MTM in this sector. For example, this year one group generated their own bamboo based sandwich composite.
On popular demand of the current P&O students this project will be repeated next year.
Bram Neirinck (dr. ir. ing.)
