The University of Michigan College of Engineering supports a wide array of student project teams. The Wilson Student Team Project Center, directed by Prof. Peter Washabaugh from Aerospace Engineering, occupies a facility adjacent to the FXB building to support a diverse set of student team projects. Students gain experience with all phases of the design, build, test project cycle.

 

Aerospace student team projects include:
+ Student Space System Fabrication Lab (S3FL)
+ SolarBubbles Unmanned Aircraft Design Team
+ M-Fly Aero Design: SAE Aircraft Design, Build, Fly Competition Team
+ Human Powered Helicopter
+ Mars Rover
+ MASA: Michigan Aeronautical Science Association
+ Experimental Aircraft
+ZESTT: Zero-g electrostatic thruster testbed

---

Student Space System Fabrication Lab (S3FL)

Mission"To provide practical hands-on interdisciplinary experience for students through the design and development of exciting aerospace projects as part of their overall academic preparation."About S3FLThe Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory (S3FL) is an organization dedicated to providing students with practical space systems design and fabrication experience not readily available through the academic curriculum. S3FL’s approach is to enhance education by coupling classroom knowledge with practicum experience involving real engineering design, analysis, test, fabrication, integration, and operation of actual flight vehicles and space payloads.

 

Each year, S3FL involves over a hundred undergraduate and graduate students in activities ranging from balloon payloads to microgravity experiments to nanosatellites. By participating in the end-to-end development of complete space systems, students acquire knowledge and expertise that would otherwise take years of post-graduate experience to be achieved.

 

Team Leads: Rafael Ramos (arramos at umich.edu), Tom Liu (liutm at umich.edu)
Aero Faculty Advisors: James Cutler (jwcutler at umich.edu), Ella Atkins (ematkins at umich.edu), Pete Washabaugh (pete at umich.edu)

---

SolarBubbles Team

The University of Michigan Solarbubbles UAV Team provides the hands-on experience of designing, building and testing unmanned-aerial vehicles to students at the University of Michigan. The team allows an opportunity for the practical development of leadership, teamwork and technical skills outside of the classroom for dedicated and intelligent students.The team's primary short-term goal is to design, build and test a solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle capable of 36+ hours of flight, of carrying a small camera payload and with less than a 15 foot wingspan. The team's long-term goal is to investigate, design, build and test creative and unique unmanned aerial vehicles. (Click adjacent photo to view recruiting video)

Nov. 2008 press release: The longest fuel cell powered flight of a radio-controlled aerial vehicle has been achieved by students at the University of Michigan [Solarbubbles] and engineers at Ann Arbor-based fuel cell manufacturer Adaptive Materials, Inc. Their plane, named Endurance, flew for 10 hours, 15 minutes and 4 seconds in a flight that lasted from sunrise to sunset on Oct. 30, 2008 at Field of Dreams Park in Milan, Mich. The previous world record, held by a California-based company, lasted just over 9 hours. (Click adjacent photo to view fuel cell video)


Team Lead: Nick Rooney (nickroon at umich.edu)
Aero Faculty Advisors: Ella Atkins (ematkins at umich.edu), Luis Bernal (lpb at umich.edu), Carlos Cesnik (cesnik at umich.edu), Pete Washabaugh (pete at umich.edu)

---

M-Fly SAE Aero Design Team

M-Fly is a Society of Automotive Engineers Aero Design team, dedicated to promoting opportunities for students to practice applying their knowledge to projects outside the classroom. “The Aero Design ® Competition challenges engineering students to conceive, design, fabricate, and test a radio controlled aircraft that can take off and land while carrying the maximum cargo. This gives students the opportunity to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom on a practical problem.” - SAE Aero Design

 

Team Lead: Brian Hopton (bhop at umich.edu)
Aero Faculty Advisors: Ella Atkins (ematkins at umich.edu), Tony Waas (dcw at umich.edu)

---

Human Powered Helicopter

Human-Powered Helicopter Team was created in 1991 to design, build, andfly the world's first human-powered helicopter. The manager of each ofthe team's task groups together with the team's project manager,technical manager, and advisor-make up the management committee, whichcoordinates the various elements of the team. A program written by thecomputer group, which calculated the power required to meet variousparameters, confirmed that the project is feasible. Because the team ismade up entirely of full-time students, turnover is high from semesterto semester. The team is always in need of creative, hard-workingpeople. Faculty advisor: William Ribbens, 764-9546 HPH office, 11 EPB,747-3319.

Team Leads: Stephen Nogar (snogar at umich.edu) and Scott Tripp (ktripp at umich.edu)

---

Mars Rover

The Mars Rover program is an ongoing research project in which astudent team designs, builds and tests prototypes of manned rovers foruse in a human mission to Mars. A Michigan Engineering team designedand built one of the world's first prototypes, called "Everest," basingit on an Army FMTV cargo truck. If a crew of four were to reach theMartian surface, Everest would be able to carry them up to 1000kilometers. The team has tested Everest at the Mars Desert ResearchStation in Utah and at a Michigan rock quarry.

Team Lead: Kohei Fujimoto (rover.pres at umich.edu)
Faculty Advisor (AOSS): Nilton Renno (nrenno at umich.edu)

---

MASA: Michigan Aeronautical Science Association

The Michigan Aeronautical Science Association is a student organization created specifically to design and fabricate rockets. MASA focuses in projects involving new hybrid propulsion technologies and composite structures. These projects culminate in rocket launches, which have been conducted since 2004. MASA's rockets are technologically demonstrative and more than able to launch payloads such as GPS telemetry devices, cameras and Cansat satellite simulators.

Team Lead: Evan Smith (evanjams at umich.edu)
Aero Faculty Advisor: Iain Boyd (iainboyd at umich.edu)

---

Experimental Aircraft

The purpose of this group is to educate students at the University through the construction of manned, powered aircraft and to create an opportunity for students to gain real-world experience in the aircraft design process. Our goal is to research, design, and construct a manned aircraft using composite materials similar to work done in the aerospace industry.

Team Lead: David Ameche (dameche at umich.edu)
Aero Faculty Advisor: Ella Atkins (ematkins at umich.edu)

---

ZESTT: Zero-g electrostatic thruster testbed

ZESTT is an engineering team at the University of Michigan (UM) whose purpose is to design, build, and test a working prototype of the Nanoparticle Field Extraction Thruster (NanoFET). With a working NanoFET, we will be able to observe the effectiveness of micro-particle separation, electrostatic charge induction, and acceleration of these particles in near space environment. The results obtained would be beneficial to space propulsion, materials processing, and biomedical applications.

Principal Investigator: Thomas Liu (liutm at umich.edu)
Aero Faculty Advisor: Alec Gallimore (alec.gallimore at umich.edu)

---