June 2022 Statler Circuit: Department Digest and Awards

The Statler Circuit is a monthly digest of news from Statler College departments and organizations that showcases the continued successes and accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students.

MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

A West Virginia University team comprised of 38 undergraduate aerospace engineering students received the Best in Theme award at the NASA's Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts – Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) competition for their Lunar Exploration and Artemis Development Portable Utility Pallet (LEAD PUP) design. The competition RASC-AL aimed to develop new concepts that leverage innovation to improve NASA’s ability to operate on the moon, Mars and beyond. The LEAD PUP is the university's proposal for a portable utility pilot design to extend the range of autonomous and crewed missions by providing communications to the eventual Artemis base and lunar gateway. It will assist future astronauts by acting as a power supply for autonomous rovers and equipment.     

MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING AND LANE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

The WVU Mountaineer Robotics team placed 10th out of 36 teams from 10 different countries in the final round of the University Rover Challenge (URC) that took place in Utah on June 1-4 at the Mars Desert Research Station. URC tasks the students with designing and building the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside astronauts exploring the red planet. Led by Faculty Adviser  Yu Gu, the team is comprised of 40 undergraduate students and three graduate students from the  Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering  and the  Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. The team started on their winning rover design in the fall 2021 semester and went through an iterative design process that built components in computer-aided design software.  

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