Pond scum’s image is about to undergo an amazing make-over. That bane of those who have decorative ponds in their backyards may be just the biofuel resource the energy-hungry U.S. is looking for.

Kettering University alumnus Jeff Bargiel ’06 is working for a company that is leading the charge to make algae (a.k.a. pond scum) the next hottest thing in alternative fuels – yes, algae, or more specifically, microalgae, a unicellular form of algae that produces one to two orders-of-magnitude more oil than any other biofuel crop on a per acre basis, according to the Department of Energy (DOE), and thus has the potential to be the most viable and economic source of liquid biofuel. 

Furthermore, algae recycle the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into useful fuel; the oil can be converted into drop-in renewable jet fuel, renewable diesel, biodiesel, fuel oil blends, and other products; use non-arable land and reclaimed water so as not to compete with food; can be harvested year-round reducing risk from a failed harvest while stabilizing fuel prices; and can be grown domestically in the U.S.  Altogether, algae hold tremendous potential to address problems with both energy and environmental security.

Bargiel is the Business Development Specialist for Phycal LLC near Cleveland, Ohio, a company that grows and harvests energy products from microalgae. The Applied Physics major describes his role at the company as “performing commercial feasibility analysis of new technologies, marketing, grant writing and assisting with investor fundraising.” He has helped raise over $8 million in private investment, grants and contracts.

He considered himself lucky to be only the third employee hired at Phycal. “For me it was better than hitting the lottery,” he said. I was here at the beginning and working with some very smart people,” adding “you have to have a high level of risk tolerance to work for a startup.”  The company now has 35 full-time employees and is growing.

Algal oil is traditionally produced by first growing the algae in open ponds or closed reactors, starving them, dewatering and drying to powder, and finally extracting the oil with aggressive solvents, according to Bargiel.  This kills the algae, is very expensive and energy intensive and is not scalable. “Imagine taking something that is 99.9 percent water and drying it to powder.  It just doesn’t make any sense.”  Phycal (from the Greek “phykos” meaning algae, and from the Latin “calor” meaning energy, hence, Phycal  = algae-energy) is different. 

“We’re talking about thousands of acres of algae ponds with water, fertilizer and sunlight to sell a commodity product.  That sounds like agriculture, and if we’re ever going to be successful we have to think like farmers, but with an algae twist,” said Bargiel.  Phycal’s current technical approach includes three advances in key areas:  extraction of oil, lipid production, and integration:

For the extraction, Phycal utilizes Olexal®, a novel living extraction process that “milks” oil from algae and recycles living algae back to the ponds to grow more oil.  Milking saves inputs, energy, and time.

“We don’t have to spend our resources growing algae ‘cows’ when what we really want is the algal oil ‘milk.’”  Also, it requires almost no dewatering; cleans many culture contaminants; and increases oil productivity.

To increase lipis production, Phycal employs Heteroboost™, an algae “feedlot” that uses algae already matured in the open ponds and increases their lipid content in a closed system by feeding them fixed carbon, such as inedible sugar and glycerol.  This dramatically increases productivity with low additive cost.

An finally, the company uses an integrated production system design to reduce capital expenditures and operating expenses and therefore minimize unit output costs.  Key innovations include pond design and operations, reductions in internal energy consumption, water management, and reductions in nutrient costs.

To develop these systems, Phycal currently operates a sub-pilot facility near Cleveland, Ohio, and an algal biotechnology lab in St. Louis, Mo.  “We’re currently scaling up processes to be moved to our pilot in Hawaii,” said Bargiel.

“The sub-pilot produces only a few gallons of oil per year, but its purpose is basic experimentation and development, not production,” he explained, adding “the pilot in Hawaii will be 30-plus acres with capacity to produce 100,000-plus gallons of algal oil per year.  Its purpose is for us to learn how to run an algae farm, validate our cost model, and attract the capital needed for a commercial farm.  It’s in permitting phase now and construction will start in late 2010.  It’s a $65 million project over four years with most funding coming from the DOE and private investors,” he said.

So is algal oil cost effective for energy?  “Not yet,” says Bargiel, “and probably not for a while.”  No company has demonstrated the cost effective production of algal oil for energy.  Although, many have cost models and are constructing pilots and demonstrations, including Phycal.

“It takes a lot of capital and development to meaningfully demonstrate new energy technologies to attract the even larger amounts of capital required to build a commercial facility.  Combine a farm with a refinery and it’s easy to reach a billion dollar price tag,” he said.

Phycal chose Hawaii primarily because of climate and economics, according to Bargiel, who stated Hawaii is probably the best place to grow algae in the U.S. because of stable and warm temperatures, sunlight, fresh water, nutrients and carbon dioxide all readily available.

Additionally, Hawaii has the highest energy costs in the US, with nearly all energy imported and about 90 percent of the electricity coming from oil power plants, making it a good test site for algae-based biofuel use.

“Hawaii allows us a higher cost target so that we can be more easily profitable.  Meanwhile, we will continuously improve our processes until they are good enough to compete on the continental US with relatively inexpensive petroleum.  Hawaii could easily use every gallon we produce there,” he added.

After the pilot program and commercial plant in Hawaii, Phycal will begin to branch out to other states. “We’ll most likely be growing commodity algal oil in warmer climates for at least the first few farms,” Bargiel explained.

“However, there are some companies working on producing algal oil in more temperate climates. These usually require having different species for different seasons and a source of waste heat from a nearby power plant or industrial facility. Algae grow everywhere, even under the Antarctic ice sheets, but that doesn’t make it economical,” he said.

There are many arguments in favor of pursuing algae as a biofuel according to Bargiel, including:

• Size - an algae farm the size of Alabama could grow all of the petroleum the U.S. currently imports (3.6 billion barrels per year);
• Volume - algae have a typical range of 1,000 to 4,000 gallons of oil per acre, per year;
• Carbon footprint - algae get most of their carbon from consuming CO2 (“We’ll need concentrated CO2 from industrial sources, such as refineries or coal power plants, and so we’re recycling that CO2 and getting more turns on it before it is released to the atmosphere.  Phycal and others have completed life cycle analyses to show that algae releases 40 to 60 percent less CO2 than petroleum fuel counterparts. If someone invents a way to concentrate it directly from the atmosphere then algal oil will be carbon-neutral,” Bargiel said.);
• Land use -  algae can be grown in ponds on non-arable land;
• Energy - Algae are expected to be energy positive;
• Continuous season -  algae can produce year round algae-based biofuel;
• Infrastructure - algal oil can be converted into a drop-in replacement for diesel or jet fuel and transported in the existing infrastructure.

What makes algae oil such an efficient and green replacement for petroleum is found in its structure and hydrocarbon make-up.  “Not all algae produce oil, but of those that do, there is a balance of “fat” and “fast” growth that must obey laws of nature but they can produce it so efficiently because they don’t have stems and leaves that divert energy and resources away from producing oil,” explained Bargiel. “Slow growing algae can accumulate as much as half of their body weight in oil.  It is plant oil very similar to soybean or canola, called a triacylglyceride (TAG),” he said.

“TAG is three hydrocarbon chains attached to a single glyceride,” he continued. “Algae typically produce hydrocarbons in the 16-18 range making them perfect for diesel. Most of the petroleum reserves on Earth are actually from millions of years of buildup of dead algae. Over time, the buildup goes through many reactions to get what we know as petroleum. The great thing is that algal oil is typically much ‘cleaner’ than petroleum,” he said.

What would need to happen to make algae-based bio-fuel the fuel of choice in the U.S?

Global oil prices would have to change, it would need political support and investment by the energy industry, according to Bargiel. The U.S. government actually explored algae as a fuel source through the Aquatic Species Program from 1978 to 1996 to study microalgae as a source of domestic fuel.

The oil situation in the 1970s, including the oil embargo and Iranian Revolution, brought the need for energy security to the forefront, he explained. The conclusion of the program was that fuels from microalgae would never be productive until crude oil reached $40 per barrel. In 1996, oil was $20 per barrel and it was never thought that it would surpass $40, so the program was shutdown.  When prices started rising again, it was easy to ramp up corn and soybean production and divert more of it to fuel, whereas algae was relatively obscure, he said.

The Energy Independence and Security Act’s (EISA) Renewable Fuel Standard 2 mandates that the U.S. be producing 36 billion gallons of advanced, non-corn based, renewable fuel by 2022 where a portion is expected to come from algae.

The good news is that there has been a tremendous amount of funding pouring in for algae research in the last two years, said Bargiel.  The Wall Street Journal called the summer of 2009 “The Summer of Algae,” and the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Agriculture have together invested more than $800 million into algae fuel research.  Additionally, some big names in energy have announced algae efforts.  “ExxonMobil just committed $600 million and Dow Chemical $50 million, just to name two,” Bargiel said.

“This is serious, we’re serious, and the U.S. is getting serious,” he said. “As a commercial entity, we wouldn’t be trying to do this if we didn’t think we could do it economically.  In six to fifteen years, the U.S. could be seeing some of its petroleum consumption replaced with algal oil on a path towards domestic energy security.”

Written by Dawn Hibbard and Jeff Bargiel

810.762.9865

dhibbard@kettering.edu

Black gold. Texas tea. Crude.

Just about every adult in the U.S. recognizes these nicknames for petroleum oil. For a society that depends so heavily on vehicular transportation, all of us have felt the tight squeeze that oil prices have exerted on our wallets. In fact, when gas prices spiked at more than $4.20 nationally a few summers ago, people reduced their driving significantly and organizations that fielded fleet vehicles worked to identify new ways to limit the amount of driving necessary in order to maintain business.

But the Wood County District Public Library Bookmobile Project that brought three Kettering/GMI grads together in 2009 shows that compressed natural gas is not only a viable solution to reducing U.S. dependency on foreign oil imports, but a cleaner, more cost-effective alternative.

Steve McEwen ’54, a resident of Bowling Green, Ohio, recently helped the Wood County District Public Library develop the specifications for a replacement of their 30-year-old bookmobile, which travels around the rural areas of the county where there are no local libraries to offer access to library books. But the most intriguing aspect of this bookmobile is that it will use compressed natural gas (CNG) as fuel.

“The project required a lot of research, arm twisting and coordination to get all the innovations incorporated. There was resistance to every change we asked for,” McEwen said.

This particular bookmobile replaces the generally accepted vehicles used in the past and satisfies the library’s needs. For example, the vehicle, which is a 2010 model 4500 GM van, is lighter, able to accommodate a truckload of books and is accessible according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The air suspension on all four corners also allows the vehicle to kneel. In addition, the bookmobile is powered with a GM six-liter Vortec engine that was converted to run on CNG that offers an ultra low emission rating and no on-board internal combustion engine driven generator. It’s also equipped with four large sealed glassmat batteries, which allow the vehicle to be silent with no engines running when exchanging books and allowing for on-board book browsing. An inverter converts the 24-volt battery power to standard 120-volt AC power, which provides electricity to RV air conditioners, heaters, lighting and power for the computers—and the use of smaller wiring. All lighting is handled with low power efficient LED lights and an 8 kilowatt main-engine-powered alternator will recharge batteries between bookmobile stops.

But for McEwen, the one element that makes this specific bookmobile project a success is the combined efforts of Kettering/GMI alums Rebecca Royer ’81 and John Prikkel ’66.

Royer is the founder and president of Baytech Corp., based in Los Altos, Calif. (http://www.baytechcorp.com/). Baytech is an industry leader in engineering and manufacturing of high performance CNG fuel injection systems for Chevrolet, GMC, Isuzu and workhorse custom chassis vehicles that meet stringent emissions standards.

“Natural gas is the only automotive alternative fuel that can significantly displace petroleum imports, since 98 percent of gas used in the U.S. comes from North America,” she explained, adding that the infrastructure for distribution of this fuel “is already in place.”

Another important aspect of using CNG is that an equivalent gallon of CNG vs. regular gas or diesel is 30 to 50 percent cheaper. Additionally, Royer explained that CNG offers more than a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to gasoline or diesel engines. “Baytech engines have lower NOx and HC emissions than gasoline or diesel, and CNG has extremely low particulate emissions,” Royer said.

In order for CNG to work in the Wood County bookmobile, McEwen and the group that designed the truck required a CNG compressor fueling unit (there are no public CNG fueling Stations in Bowling Green). After some exhaustive research, McEwen stumbled onto Liteflex LLC (http://www.liteflexllc.com/), founded and owned by John Prikkel ’66. The company is based in the Dayton/Englewood area of Ohio and the company’s main product is fiberglass/epoxy composite springs in addition to CNG filling stations and vehicle conversion services.

Liteflex has also made all of the springs for the Chevrolet Corvette since 1981. For the bookmobile project, Prikkel’s company refurbished the CNG compression unit for refueling the bookmobile after each day’s deliveries. This is critical, since an original manufacturer of CNG fueling systems for the states recently moved from Canada to Italy, where the use of CNG is mandated in many areas of Europe. This move also created a temporary shortage of this equipment in the U.S. 

The compressed natural gas field is one ready to explode, explained Prikkel and Royer. Royer became involved in this industry more than 20 years through a contract with a major fleet in the late 1980s to develop a lean-burn, turbocharged heavy duty CNG engine for an R & D company. Today, Baytech Corp. is the only company to have earned the California Air Resources Board (CARB) certification for CNG systems on GM vehicles and engines. 

“Although the technology was not commercially available at the time when I first started in this industry, I saw an opportunity to develop more advanced, cleaner natural gas vehicle engine technology than was available in the marketplace using throttle body fuel injection and more sophisticated engine control system calibration,” she explained. “As a result, I founded Baytech in 1991,” she added.

For McEwen, the opportunity to provide Wood County with a bookmobile that is efficient and environmentally friendly is exceptional, but the chance to utilize the services of companies owned and operated by Kettering/GMI alums is truly amazing. 

“When we started the bookmobile project, I was surprised to learn that the two companies I needed help from were owned and operated by Kettering/GMI alums,” he said. “Most importantly, these companies are quite successful. With the continued use of CNG, Baytech and Liteflex are on the cusp of some potentially new opportunities that will make a positive impact on the transportation and automotive industry in the very near future,” he added.

To learn more about Baytech Corp., visit the website at http://www.baytechcorp.com/. For more information on Liteflex LLC, visit the website at http://www.liteflexllc.com/.

Written by Gary Erwin

810.762.9538

gerwin@kettering.edu

Sustainable, green, renewable and alternative are all adjectives used to define one of the fastest growing engineering fields – energy. Kettering University’s “Get Energized” pre-college program explores everything from nuclear to solar and fuel cells to wind power and biogas.

The program enables high school students in grades 9-12 to get a first-hand look into 21^st century energy technologies, according to Dr. Ahmad Pourmovahed, program director of the Sustainable Energy Pre-College Program and professor of Mechanical Engineering.

The 2010 “Get Energized” program will run July 19-23 for 9^th and 10^th graders, and July 26-30 for 11^th and 12^th graders. The deadline to apply for the program is July 1.

Kettering's sustainable energy pre-college program features hands-on experiences and lectures on topics including careers in sustainable energy, climate change, the demand for new technologies in the form of hybrid vehicles and energy extracted from natural resources such as the sun and wind.

New this year is a stronger emphasis on nuclear energy and biogas, said Pourmavahed. “The number of nuclear power plants in this country is expected to double in the next few decades,” he said. “Currently, there is a shortage of engineers who are qualified to work in these power plants.  Nuclear Energy sessions have been added to this pre-college program to address this shortage,” he explained.

Additionally, Kettering recently received a $951,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to monitor, verify and improve process parameters for the production of biogas at the Flint Wastewater Treatment Plant and to utilize biogas in transportation and power generation. The outreach portion of this grant will partially fund sessions on biogas production and utilization in transportation (vehicle conversion to bio-fuel) and power generation in the pre-college program.

Last summer, seven Kettering faculty participated in this pre-college program.  Topics covered in the 2010 program include biogas, nuclear energy, biofuels, geothermal energy and hydro-power, fuel cells and hydrogen safety, wind and solar energy as well as global warming. Automotive applications of sustainable energy, such as the use of fuel cells used in some hybrid vehicles, are also addressed.   

The Summer 2010 program will be funded by the Biogas Center of Energy Excellence grant from the U.S. Department of Energy through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and by the Kettering University Center for Fuel Cell Systems & Powertrain Integration.

For more on Kettering's Sustainable Energy Pre-College Program, visit: http://www.kettering.edu/futurestudents/undergraduate/sustainable_energy_precollege.jsp

What does the soap box derby have in common with Olympic bobsledding?

Surprisingly, more than the average Olympic observer might know.

Brooks Townsend ’63 and Herman “Tex” Finsterwald ’66 are soap box derby legends who helped design the 2010 U.S. two-man bobsled under the direction of lead designer Ollie Brower. The story of their involvement in the development of the U.S. sled harkens back many years to their childhoods when soap box derby competitions enveloped their worlds.

Townsend’s two brothers won a national competition in the 1950s and their father was responsible for the development of a permanent track in their hometown of Anderson, Ind., one that’s still in operation today. After Townsend graduated from Kettering/GMI, he served as a senior industrial engineer at GM and also as director of the Anderson race for six years. Additionally, his grandson won this race in 2006 and placed third in the national competition in Akron that year. And to cap it off, Townsend earned induction into the Soap Box Derby Hall of Fame in 2008, which is based in Akron.

Like Townsend, Finsterwald enjoyed a career as an industrial engineer and retired as a senior plant engineer from GM in 1997 when Delphi was still a part of the organization. He has also enjoyed a life-long passion for soap box derby. He competed in races as a boy and became a local and national race official. He has also known Townsend for more than 40 years through their soap box experiences and earned induction into the Hall of Fame as well in 2006.

But the question still remains: what connection does soap box derby and bobsledding have in common?

“A few things,” Townsend said. “Specifically, aerodynamics, energy, vibration and force,” he added.

That’s one reason why Ollie Brower, a retired Los Angeles firefighter who now lives in St. George, Utah, contacted Townsend and Finsterwald. Brower is also a former soap box derby competitor and has maintained involvement in the sport ever since. In addition, he became interested in design work as a teenaged soap box competitor and for the past 55 years studied physics, mechanics and aerodynamics with the idea of reducing drag and friction of moving parts. This experience helped him develop aerodynamic expertise in “slow speed,” which is a sub-group of “low speed” aerodynamics. After the 2002 Olympics silver medal run in the four-man bobsled by American Todd Hays, which ended a 46-year drought for the U.S., Hays met with one of Brower’s friends, Bruce Finwall, who is an aerodynamic engineer. The goal: design a faster sled, since Hays missed a medal in the 2002 two-man competition by 0.03 seconds. 

“Bruce and Todd asked me to form a team of volunteers to design and build the world’s fastest bobsled,” Brower explained.

Eventually, Brower took over the entire design work and brought in his friends Townsend and Finsterwald to help work out some difficult challenges. Both Kettering/GMI alums were instrumental in helping the design team overcome several obstacles and insure that the sled met the strict competition design guidelines. Some of these issues included determining the optimum sled design to achieve a faster start; designing and building faster runners, which entailed an exorbitant amount of research and testing; and determining if the sled would be faster overall with the mass located high or low, among other concerns.  

According to Brower, Townsend and Finsterwald created new axle mounts for the front and rear that significantly reduced sliding friction. “This was very difficult to do because of the tight rules,” he said, adding that the end result of their design “smoothed the jerky track transitions. The sled ended up being 1/2 second faster than the rest of the U. S. sleds on the Lake Placid track. A half second is a huge margin. The sled was 0.30 seconds faster than the rest of the U.S. sleds on the smoother Park City track.”

The result of their work sparked Todd Hays to miss a gold medal by just a hair but win a Silver Medal at the two-man bobsled Park City, Utah, World Cup event in November.

Townsend and Finsterwald said that their education at Kettering/GMI played an important role in how they approached the challenges presented by the bobsled design work.

    “Some of the subjects I took at Kettering/GMI made me aware of different possibilities and areas that could be improved in aerodynamics, energy and vibration,” Townsend said. “I think perhaps the most satisfying aspect of this project was when we watched the sled run in competition in Utah against sleds from around the world and beat them,” he added.

Finsterwald agreed, adding that the sled “is only part of the picture. The athletes play a huge part in the performance. Todd Hays is arguably the top U.S. driver. But an engineering background is certainly a help when considering the physics, mechanics and aerodynamics of designing a sled.”

Todd Hays, the driver of the U.S. two-man bobsled, also believes that the two-man sled is perhaps the fastest he ever drove during his illustrious career.

“Many of the engineering changes that Tex and Brooks helped us with made the sled handle much better and reduced side slip energy loss. That not only helped with the finish time but also with our confidence and consistency,” he said.

Unfortunately, the status of the sled competing in the Olympics is up in the air. In late December, Hays was in Winterberg, Germany, with the two-man sled for the World Cup races. He agreed to test a new four-man sled but crashed during the run. He suffered a life-threatening hematoma and was forced to abruptly retire.

Fortunately, after a battery of tests, it appears Hays will be alright. But the question of whether or not the two-man sled will run in the Olympics is still uncertain.

Still, the efforts of Townsend and Finsterwald haven’t gone unnoticed by the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. Hays, who is perhaps one of the most decorated sled drivers in the history of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, would like to see both engineers continue with their efforts.

“These guys are incredibly smart and I sure hope they will stay involved with the program in the future,” he said.
Cut line: Herman “Tex” Finsterwald ’66 and Brooks Townsend ’63 pose with the sled at the Park City, Utah, World Cup event in November   

Written by Gary Erwin

810.762.9538

gerwin@ketteirng.edu

"We’ve got spirit, yes we do … we’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you?"

An old favorite cheer was put to good use when nearly 3,000 people attended the Kettering University FIRST Robotics District competition in the Connie and Jim John Recreation Center on March 5 and 6.  Thirty-eight teams competed at the district games in front of large, supportive crowds and several visiting Michigan FIRST teams who were already scouting out the competition for upcoming state finals in April.

Bob Nichols, Kettering’s director of External Affairs and co-chair of the PlanningCommittee for district games, said he was surprised and pleased at the large crowd that came to cheer on their favorite high school team.  "We easily had 1,000 visitors on Friday and came close to 2,000 people inside the Recreation Center on Saturday – once again breaking all records for Kettering’s largest robotics event ever.  What a great weekend for Kettering and FIRST,” Nichols added.

First place awards went to a three-team alliance: Team 67, Heroes of Tomorrow (HOT) from Milford; Team 70, More Martians from Goodrich and Team 910, Foley's Freeze of Madison Heights. 

Second place honors went to a three-team alliance: Team 33, Killer Bees of Auburn Hills; Team 894, the Chargers from Flint's Powers High School and Team 2619, the Charge from Midland.

The event's most prestigious honor, The Chairman's Award, went to Northville's Team 548, the Robostangs, for their blend of technological skill, entrepreneurial enthusiasm and community service.

Other awards and recipients:
“Coopertition” Award: Team 67, Heros of Tomorrow (HOT) from Milford

Engineering Inspiration: Team 2834, Bionic Barons from Bloomfield Hills

Rookie All-Star: Team 3398, Crush 'n Crusaders from Detroit

Engineering Excellence: Team 1322, Grayt Leviathons of Fenton

Industrial Design: Team 33, Killer Bees of Auburn Hills

Quality: Team 67, Heroes of Tomorrow (HOT) of Milford

Innovation in Control: Team 910, Foley's Freeze from Madison Heights

Creativity: Team 51, Wings of Fire from Pontiac

Entrepreneurship: Team 27, Team Rush of Clarkston

Rookie Inspiration: Team 3421, Tachyon Techs from Marysville

Gracious Professionalism: Team 2604, Metal and Soul from Capac

Imagery: Team 245, Adambots from Rochester Hills

Team Spirit: Team 2337, Enginerds from Grand Blanc

Highest Rookie Seed: Team 3398, Crush 'n Crusaders from Detroit

Industrial Safety: Team 2604, Metal and Soul from Capac

Website: Team 2834, Bionic Barons from Bloomfield Hills

Judges' Award: Team 2054, Viking Robotics from Hopkins 

This year's game is “Breakaway,” where large robots built by high school students play soccer on a 27-by-54-foot soccer field with bumpers and soccer-style goals.  “This year’s game is really challenging and different from past years,” Nichols explained.  “Three-team alliances attempt to earn points by collecting soccer balls and moving them around the competition field. Additional bonus points can be earned for each robot that is suspended in air on special metal poles at the end of the match.  It blends all the competition of FIRST Robotics with the popularity of soccer," Nichols added. 

Teams that competed at the Kettering district contest were:
Team 1, Juggernauts from Pontiac

Team 27, Team Rush from Clarkston

Team 33, Killer Bees from Auburn Hills

Team 49, Robotic Knights from Buena Vista

Team 51, Wings of Fire from Pontiac

Team 67, Heroes of Tomorrow (HOT) from Milford

Team 70, More Martians from Goodrich

Team 201, Feds from Rochester Hills

Team 245, Adambots from Rochester Hills

Team 314, Big Mo from Flint’s Carman-Ainsworth High School

Team 322, FIRE from Flint Community Schools

Team 397, the Knight Riders from Flint’s Southwestern Academy and Bendle High School

Team 468, Aftershock from Flint/Flushing

Team 470, Alpha Omega from Ypsilanti

Team 494, Martians from Goodrich

Team 548, Robostangs from Northville

Team 703, Phoenix from Saginaw

Team 862, Lightning Robotics from Canton

Team 894, Chargers from Flint Power Catholic High School

Team 910, Foley Freeze from Madison Heights

Team 1025, IMPI Robotics from Ferndale

Team 1243, Dragons from Swartz Creek

Team 1322, G.R.A.Y.T. Leviathons from Fenton

Team 1504, Desperate Penguins from Okemos

Team 1506, Metal Muscle from Genesee, Macomb and Oakland Counties and Kettering University

Team 1684, Golden Eagles from Lapeer East

Team 2054, Viking Robotics from Hopkins

Team 2075, Enigma from Grand Rapids West Catholic High School

Team 2163, Chrome Panthers from Lapeer West

Team 2337, Enginerds from Grand Blanc

Team 2604, Metal & Soul from Capac

Team 2617, RoboReds from Lansing

Team 2619, The Charge from Midland

Team 2627, Grace Tech Royals from Ann Arbor

Team 2834, Bionic Barons from Bloomfield Hills

Team 3398, Crush ‘N Crusaders from Detroit

Team 3415, Rams from Montrose

Team 3421, Tachyon Techs from Marysville

The Kettering University FIRST Robotics District was one of seven district events in the state.  Michigan will also have a state championship contest in Ypsilanti in early April.  Nichols said that the FIRST in Michigan district competition is a model for the nation and is based, in part, on the success of the low-cost Rookie Regional hosted at Kettering University in 2008.  Additionally, there will be 40 regional competitions in the U.S., Canada and Israel, which will lead to the 2010 FIRST Championship at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, April 15-17.  For more on FIRST's program in Michigan, visit www.firstinmichigan.org.

FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is now in its 19th season and is a national effort to inspire youth to explore career possibilities in engineering, science and technology. The event is a head-to-head competition between large radio-controlled robots built by teams of high school students and sponsoring engineers.

“What a great event for our participants and our university,” Nichols added.  We had an opportunity to show off our buildings and our students, who did a great job working during the entire event,” he said.  “I send my congratulations to all our FIRST participants and my thanks to the many volunteers who make this spectacular event a reality.”

See a photo album of fun photos from the event.

Written by Patricia Mroczek
810.762.9533
pmroczek@kettering.edu

 

Kettering University has been named to the 2009 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement.

The Corporation for National and Community Service, which administers the annual Honor Roll award, recognized more than 700 colleges and universities for their impact on issues from poverty and homelessness to environmental justice. On campuses across the country, thousands of students joined their faculty to develop innovative programs and projects to meet local needs using the skills gained in their classrooms.

Kettering students volunteer through a variety of initiatives coordinated by the Student Civic Engagement Center (SCEC), a collaborative of community service, service-learning, philanthropic and volunteer organizations on campus. These include: Engineers Without Borders (EWB), Green Engineering Organization (GEO), realSERVICE, and Up 'til Dawn (UTD). It also serves as the community outreach conduit for Kettering students, as well as for coordinating CollegeTown service activities with the University of  Michigan-Flint, Baker College, and Mott Community College.

“Congratulations to the awardees and students for their dedication to service and commitment to improving their local communities,” said Patrick Corvington, the Corporation's CEO. “Our nation's students are a critical part of the equation and vital to our efforts to tackle the most persistent challenges we face. They have achieved impactful results and demonstrated the value of putting knowledge into practice to help renew America through service.”

The Honor Roll members can be found at: http://www.learnandserve.gov/pdf/10_0225_lsa_honorrollfulllist.pdf