I participated and was awarded the "First Prize" in the graduate category of the ASME Student Mechanism Design Competition at the International Design Engineering Technical Conferences 2008 held in New York. It was a tremendous experience with a considerable international flavor. Student teams from India and China were among the participants who represented a variety of universities such as the University of Michigan, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Brigham Young University etc.
Click here to read about the competition and/or go to the competition web site by clicking here. I have provided a short description of the competition below from the site:
"The ASME Student Mechanism Design Competition is an excellent opportunity for both undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their talents and abilities in front of respected world-renowned experts in mechanism design from
academia and industry. Submissions are judged on the basis of creativity, practicality, integrity of analysis and design methodology, and quality of a fabricated prototype and a final report. Finalists will be invited to present their work at the 2008 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (DETC 2008). Winners of the competition will be recognized at the annual Mechanisms and Robotics Luncheon at DETC 2008 and presented with awards, which in the past have included both cash and software prizes."
Judging of the competition was carried out on the basis of a poster, working prototype and a presentation.
At the competition, I presented a novel micro-gripper for stable micromanipulation that I had developed (along with my advisor Dr. Saggere) in the Microsystems and Devices Laboratory (UIC) as part of my larger research goal of understanding the physics of and developing tools for micro/nano handling tasks. The title of my entry was:
"A Novel Micro-Clasp Mechanism for Micromanipulation"
Click on the image to the right to be redirected to a PDF of the poster that I presented.
(Photos below are courtesy of ASME)
|
