News Release

Electrical Engineering students again capture regional honors

May 13, 2009

The talents of Penn State Harrisburg’s electrical engineering students are evident far beyond the classroom.

In the largest regional competition of its type in a seven-state area, Penn State Harrisburg students have again walked away with top honors for their creative talents.

Held in concert with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Activities Conference at Youngstown State University, the competitions involving 22 colleges and universities saw students from the Middletown campus garner first and second places.

Manan Mehta’s presentation of a project he created with two classmates was judged the best in the Project Showcase portion and a four-student team took second in the Micro-Mouse competition. The electrical engineering contests involved students from larger institutions including Ohio State, Drexel, West Virginia, and Temple.

Last year, a Penn State Harrisburg team won the Micro-Mouse test and another student placed third in the Project Showcase.

Mehta’s project, completed in concert with Curt Armer of Lancaster and Michael Bomberger of Lebanon, involved successfully equipping a remote controlled airplane with a GPS navigational system and a camera. “A signal is sent from the plane to the ground system and we can visually track the plane through a TV set or computer monitor,” Mehta says. “The camera sends back live images from the flight and we can watch just like we were sitting in the cockpit. The flight path is entered using coordinates through the GPS and we can change the flight path from the ground while the plane is in the air.”

One of the most popular events annually is the micromouse competition which involves the construction of an autonomous robotic “mouse” that navigates to the center of a random maze from a specified corner in the shortest amount of time possible.

The Penn State Harrisburg team Andy Zambell, Palmyra, Cuong Huynh, Leola, Charlie Huynh, Leola, and Lancaster, took second place.

Armer, who was on the winning micromouse team in 2008, adds that the biggest challenge with this year’s project was building the “main brain” for the plane which involved hand soldering the micro controls. Graduating in May and already with employment in hand as an electrical engineer at TMI, he sees a commercial future for the invention. “I can see it used by persons who own very large tracts of land and don’t have time to drive around to inspect – ranchers, for example.

“Competing against larger, more well-known universities is an encouragement for our students, and their successes bring recognition and respect to our programs.” says electrical engineering faculty member AB Shafaye. “In fact, our student contingent of 22 this year was more than any of the other 21 competing colleges.”

He continues, “We encourage teamwork in projects in our academic programs and being a smaller college greatly increases the interaction among students. They know each other well, both in class and out, and assemble productive teams where the members are comfortable working with each other.

“And aside from the competitive aspect of the gathering, students get to see the types of research and projects being undertaken at other colleges, network, and many times strike up friendships with students of similar academic interest.”

Participating in addition to Penn State Harrisburg in the conference were: the University of Maryland/Baltimore County, Drexel University, Ohio University, Gannon University, University of the District of Columbia, University of Scranton, Cleveland State University, Lafayette College, University of Maryland/Eastern Shore, Montgomery College, Wright State University, Ohio Northern University, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, Rowan University, Penn College of Technology, DeVry University in Columbus, University of Akron, Temple University, University of Cincinnati, Penn State York, and Ohio State University.