Design Day projects inspire aerospace senior

The Craig M. Berge Design Day project open house attracted hundreds of engineering students prepared to begin their capstone work. AME senior Rachael Pabst showed up ready to learn about several Interdisciplinary Capstone projects, but she had a favorite in mind.

“My top project is the lunar automated one where you are turning moon dust into water,” Pabst said.

A few days later, Pabst was indeed assigned to the procurement lead role on Team 25029, Lunar Automated Regolith Processing, sponsored by the School of Mining and Mineral Resources.  She and her teammates will design and build an automated rover that can produce 1 liter of water in 24 hours from material that approximates moon soil.

The open house brings together students and industry sponsors to build rapport before project match day. The capstone course is a requirement for all engineering seniors to jumpstart their transition from college to the workforce.

Steve Larimore, lead instructor for the Interdisciplinary Capstone program, then updated the sponsors on the college’s latest program requirement: sustainable design.

“There is a need to pay attention to sustainability; we can’t just consume,” Larimore said. “It’s important that we teach our engineers to always be thinking about sustainability as they design.”