Engineering students team up for design projects

The winning team from this year’s Engineering Practice and Design (EPADS) II liquid transfer project included Seth Biasco, sophomore mechanical engineering major from Big Lake, Minn.; sophomore computer engineering major Alex Kirmes of Boiling Springs, Pa.; sophomore mechanical engineering Drew Harlacher of Dover, Pa.; freshman mechanical engineering major Will Kramer of Harleysville, Pa.; and sophomore mechanical engineering major Mark Groseclose of Oxford, Pa.

The liquid transfer project requires each team to design, build, and fabricate a bottle filling and capping device. Students are required to fill three empty Snapple bottles with 12 ounces of fluid from a supplied reservoir and then cap them with a tennis ball.

All York College Engineering majors are required to complete a number of engineering design projects as members of a design team. Engineering design projects begin in the freshman year as part of the EPADS I and EPADS II courses, and finish in the senior year as part of Thermal System Design, Senior Design I, and Senior Design II courses. The projects are generated from current technical needs of the Engineering Program’s Industry Advisory Council or are competitions sponsored by various technical societies and/or agencies. Projects generally include creative conception, design, fabrication, testing, and performance of a physical system or component. Written reports and oral presentations are generally required, the latter being made before a group of faculty, students, project sponsors, parents, and visiting evaluators from local industry.