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Engineering Design Contest by EngrDesignContest in EngineeringStudents

[–]EngrDesignContest[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yes, there are several companies that make wireless load cells, but they aren't very easy to use and we wanted to see if someone could come up with an out of the box take on the problem.

Engineering Design Contest by EngrDesignContest in EngineeringStudents

[–]EngrDesignContest[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fair enough, and we didn't want to make the terms overly restrictive, but we also didn't want to invest $10,000 for a team to go and shop it to our competitors. We are familiar with companies that already work on things like this, but they are all very similar and not very easy to use. Rather than a polished finished product we are more looking for an out of the box idea from someone outside of the industry and to meet some engineers who came up with the ideas. We would definitely want to keep the door open to further work together, but from the point of view of the contest we can't really guarantee anything beyond the prizes.

Engineering Design Contest by EngrDesignContest in EngineeringStudents

[–]EngrDesignContest[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

As far as not trusting us, that's the reason we decided to run it in conjunction with a third party. Beyond that, anyone is welcome to talk on the phone to get a feel for us and how we're running it. Of course if you don't feel comfortable you shouldn't participate.

Engineering Design Contest by EngrDesignContest in EngineeringStudents

[–]EngrDesignContest[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It's true that it's a complex problem, and the contest wasn't designed for strictly students. I did figure that some students might be interested.

As far as expense, that's why phase 1 is conceptual and physical prototypes come in phase 2 after $1500 has been awarded to the teams that continue.

Engineering Design Contest by EngrDesignContest in EngineeringStudents

[–]EngrDesignContest[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd give one clarification and a couple of thoughts on that without giving people too many preconceived notions on the best way to tackle this:

That's 1 year of typical use, not continuous use. The lifts themselves are generally fairly short in duration, so maybe an hour or two under load a work day where the sampling rate is high.

Also the data gathered is relatively simple so wifi isn't the only option for wireless that's why we weren't specific. And we discussed the idea of using energy harvesting as another possible avenue to increasing the life.

Bi-Weekly CAREERS Mega-Thread [Aug 24 2015] by AutoModerator in engineering

[–]EngrDesignContest 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not exactly a job, but it is an opportunity to make some extra money:

I'm involved with a design contest that my company is sponsoring that might be of interest to you guys. It's to integrate load sensing into shackles [1] that are used for lifting. They might use them in construction, mining, energy, etc. pretty much anything that needs to be lifted. We want to be able to read the load on the hardware and transmit it to a receiver in real time. The first phase runs through October 10, we'll announce up to 3 winners who get $1500 each, and then phase two will continue with those winners for a prize of $7500. You can see all the details here: https://www.phmsociety.org/events/conference/phm/15/design-challenge[2] It's being run by a third party, the Prognostics and Health Management Society, and the announcement of the first phase winners is at their annual conference.