Campus Community
Posted: Thursday, April 29, 2010Mechanical Engineering Technology Students Place Second in National Competition
By Jerod Dahlgren
For the second year in a row, Buffalo State College engineering technology students and faculty earned national honors in the Compressed Air and Gas Institute’s (CAGI) Innovation Awards Contest.
Buffalo State took second place in the industry-sponsored, invitation-only design competition, beating out entries from Virginia Tech University and Georgia Institute of Technology.
The CAGI contest challenged students from colleges and universities across the country to create innovative designs for machine tool applications, motion control devices, and consumer products using compressed air as the power source. The projects were judged in three areas: innovation, marketability, and presentation.
Buffalo State’s entry, “Onboard Vehicle Compression Storage System,” utilized a double-acting cylinder to capture and store green energy from a vehicle’s suspension system.
Mechanical engineering technology program students Brad Wargula, Kenny Stafford, Matt Geil, Jason Zaepfel, Sara Ward, and Miles Williamson shared the $1,500 prize. Faculty adviser David Kukulka, professor of technology, received $4,000 on behalf of Buffalo State’s mechanical engineering technology program. The team was sponsored by Cameron Compression Systems and industry mentor Edward Czechowski, ’95, ’97.
