The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW) in southwest Germany is the backbone of the higher education landscape in Germany and is the major manufacturing region for Europe.  By population, it is only slightly larger than Michigan (10.5 million people).

BW has eight universities dedicated to cooperative education, utilizing 8,400 companies to place 19,000 co-op students, said Dr. Peter Frankenberg, BW’s minister of science, research and the arts.  Frankenberg addressed a large gathering at Kettering May 21 in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the BW-Kettering study-abroad exchange program.

The German education minister along with Professor Gerhard Walliser, coordinator in Germany of the BW-Kettering exchange program; and Ines Busch, BW’s head of the department of International and European Union Affairs, were part of the special delegation that traveled to Kettering to mark the anniversary and discuss future growth of the program.  Guests from Reutlingen included Reutlingen University President Peter Niess, Professor Baldur Viet, director of the International Office and Professor Bernd Thomas from Mechanical Engineering. 

“Kettering has a great history and tradition in exchanging students with Germany,” said Kettering Provost Michael Harris.  “We are delighted to have such a significant delegation from Baden-Wuerttemberg with us to help celebrate the many who have sustained this relationship through the years.”

Frankenberg shared a brief history of education in his state, saying that the first university began in Heidelberg in 1386.  Today, there are almost 60 institutions focused on preparing students in a multitude of fields.  “”Energy research is a mega topic in Germany,” he explained.  “And renewable materials have a new importance and focus.  We spend a lot of time studying the overlap of the sciences, especially physics, biology and chemistry,” he continued.

“We have to overcome the barriers between the disciplines, however,” he said.  “We need lighter materials and new sources of energy and must create more cooperation to meet our urgent energy challenges.”

Frankenberg said Germany’s universities seek better technology transfer, mobility, flexibility and quality assurance, as well as new ways to educate students.  “We’ll be focusing on cycled study, employability and modularization to deal with the internationalization we face.”

Concluding, he said, “we sincerely appreciate the exchange program we have with Kettering University and are pleased to invite students into academic environments that are safe and interesting.  We are very proud of this study-abroad program and have grown very fond of it,” he added.

The BW-Kettering study-abroad program typically exchanges 150 students during an academic year.  Since 1995, 1,584 students have participated (745 Kettering students and 839 BW students).  Kettering students enroll in one of five BW universities and are able to bring back 16 academic credits from their exchange studies.  Most students use the study trip to explore Europe while becoming exposed to European standards of academic excellence and scientific research.  A culture class is a key part of their educational experience.    

Written by Patricia Mroczek

810.762.9533

pmroczek@kettering.edu

Kettering University’s SAE Baja team weathered the weather, broken parts and flat tires to ALMOST make it through the endurance race, but accumulated factors stopped them in their, uh, tire tracks, as it were.

They left Kettering on a Wednesday (April 15) around 8 p.m. with a small detour to Ohio to pick up team members and then made the 15-hour drive to SAE Baja Alabama 2009 at Auburn University.

By Friday (April 17), the team was at the competition site at the test facility for the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT), a working engineering test site. Friday’s events included Tech Inspections, design judging and cost reviews, and anticipating what they would need to fix to meet the 2009 rule changes. Saturday (April 18) events included acceleration, braking, traction, suspension and maneuverability. 

Their first night in Auburn, the team walked the endurance track to prepare for the four-hour endurance race.  The track was 2.28 miles for one lap and presented what Team Co-Captain Karen Dernar termed “a very intense and heavy duty course.”

“They incorporated all the challenges that off road enthusiasts would experience, such as river crosses, whoops, hill climbs, rock crawls, extreme hills and jumps, railroad track and rocks,” she said. The weather was warm and sunny through Saturday, but the area experienced rain Sunday, making the course very muddy – “but that’s what Baja is all about,” said Dernar.

Saturday the team passed technical inspection with only one bolt that had to be replaced, so there were no major changes to the vehicle, according to Dernar.  The Kettering vehicle ran all the events: acceleration, braking, traction, suspension, and maneuverability without a problem, she said.  They also all had an opportunity to run the practice track Saturday night which resulted in a last-minute front suspension re-design.

“After taking a few runs on the practice course, we found a small break that needed a quick fix,” said Dernar. “We also noticed that we needed about 1/8-inch more of clearance between our front uprights and the wheel hubs. We came up with a solution for shortening our uprights by 1/8-inch. What should have been a quick fix affected the entire front suspension, and we needed to make new steering control arms to fit the changed design.”

Working until 3:30 a.m. to make the new parts work and aligning the car so the front wheels were not toed in or out, the team started the final day on little sleep.      

On Sunday, when they had an opportunity to drive the car, they noticed a considerable improvement in the car's turning radius, to their advantage.  The re-design proved to be a great idea, Dernar said, and resulted in improved maneuverability.

The four-hour endurance race began at 8:45 a.m., and the first lap took the Kettering vehicle 15 minutes to complete.  After the first lap, they decreased their lap time to about eight minutes.  After four laps they experienced a flat tire, like almost every single team, according to Dernar. 

Finishing the fifth lap, they drove into the pits and plugged the tire. “We completed two more laps, but during the seventh lap our driver experienced a wheel lock-up. We checked it out in the hot pits, and noticed the break in the upright, putting the team out of the competition with only 45 minutes to go in the race,” she said.

“Had we had more sleep the night before and more energy, we would have been able to fix the upright and get back into the race for only about one or two more laps,” said Dernar, “but since we were happy with our progress and achievements up until that point, the team unanimously decided to call it a day.”

Overall, the team was happy with their performance in Alabama coming in 60th place out of 100. They are using what they learned about their vehicle in Alabama to improve their next Baja design.

Written by Dawn Hibbard

810.762.9865

dhibbard@kettering.edu

While the words “snowmobile” and “April” in the same sentence is unusual, Kettering students in Dr. Greg Davis’s Advanced Automotive Power Systems class made the combination almost seem plausible. They used a truck, some water and little wheels to run tests on the SAE Clean Snowmobile sled in the back parking lot April 23.

The students, including SAE Clean Snowmobile team captain Andrew Baker, of Lawton, Mich., were performing drag testing on the sled without the benefit of snow for two reasons: one, as a class project, and two, because “when there is snow, the team is usually working hard to get the snowmobile ready for competition, and there is rarely enough time to actually do much testing,” said Baker.

“This is obviously not ideal, but it is the way that things get done,” he explained.  And snow doesn’t necessarily mean better testing conditions, according to Baker. “From day-to-day snow conditions can change significantly and really affect the results of testing. Asphalt is always the same regardless of the weather conditions,” he said.

He convinced his classmates (see box), who were not part of the Clean Snowmobile team, to perform the tests on the snowmobile’s drivelines, which, in the past, have been extremely inefficient so the team had added idler wheels to the suspension system to make significant decreases in drag losses.  

The down-side to idler wheels is that they also add noise. Noise reduction is one goal of the Clean Snowmobile competition. “The point of the testing was to see if the idlers and Hyperfax slides that we added to the snowmobile for competition last March were really worth the added cost and potential noise,” Baker said.  

To test for noise, the groups hitched the snowmobile behind a pick up truck and dragged it around the parking lot at varying speeds. Testing consisted of varying system configurations to determine what products (idler wheels and/or Hyperfax) were the most beneficial to the snowmobile. Speeds were varied to see how the drag reductions were dependent on the speed of the machine.  

To keep the slides and “Hyperfax” from overheating during testing, the students rigged a water sprayer to keep them cool.  “When a snowmobile is running on snow like it’s supposed to, snow melts and keeps the slides cool and lubricated,” said Baker.  Because we are testing on asphalt, we needed a way to keep the slides cool and lubricated, otherwise, we could literally melt the slides onto the track and lock the whole system up. Doing this also helps simulate snow conditions so that our results are closer to what we would expect to see on snow,” he explained.

If testing proved that the drag was significantly reduced, the team would know that the idlers and Hyperfax are worth using, and may add even more wheels on future competition machines, according to Baker.  

The results are still pending, but after three days of testing, the group has a class project with real world application and the Clean Snowmobile team will get some invaluable insight about the work they did this year in preparation for next March.

Written by Dawn Hibbard

810.762.9865

dhibbard@kettering.edu

The Kettering Baja team battled the cold and engine woes Saturday, Feb. 14, at Michigan Technological University’s Winter Baja in Houghton, Mich., where the temperature was a balmy 16 degrees F. The team made the 500-mile journey to test some of the modifications they have made since the Baja SAE competition in April 2008.

Their modifications help them place 25^th in a field of 42, a “huge accomplishment for Kettering’s Baja team,” according to Karen Dernar, of North Royalton, Ohio, co-captain of the A-Section team with Mike Tebbe, of Holly, Mich.

“During the first two hours of endurance racing at Michigan Tech we encountered trouble with the stock engine required for competition,” said Dernar. “We took time out in the pits to fix it,” she said, “and in the last two hours of the endurance race, with a cleaned carburetor and a full tank of fuel, we almost doubled our laps to a total of 44, and five driver changes.” Overall, the team gained 69 laps, putting them in 25^th place out of 42 vehicles.

The team introduced their current Baja car at competition in April 2008 in Peoria, Ill. Unfortunately, they were unable to finish the endurance race due to failed components resulting from rough conditions, according to Dernar.

Since then the team has focused on designing and building a better vehicle. “We improved upon the same car so we could compete this February at Michigan Tech,” Dernar explained.

Improvements included modified lower control arms and mounts for increased strength, a new 90-degree steering box for tighter turns and modified rear hub design to prevent the failure they experienced in April. To help with handling on the snow and ice during the winter competition, the team was sponsored by Super Sports Inc. in Waterford, Mich., who donated deep tread winter race tires for the car.

“I am so proud of all that we have accomplished with this car. The team learned how solid and rigid our car is, and with that in mind, our goal is to greatly reduce weight in the 2009 car,” she said.

The average competitive weight for a Baja vehicle is between 400-500 pounds.  The Kettering Baja vehicle currently weighs just under 600 pounds. “We will attempt to reduce the weight to about 500 pounds including the driver,” said Dernar, “and also improve our steering and handling, and CVT efficiency.”

“The team has high hopes coming out of last weekend’s competition, and we hope to become even more competitive in the upcoming competitions in April and November,” Dernar said. In April 2009 the team will compete in Alabama at Auburn University with the 2009 version of their vehicle, currently being built.

Kettering’s Baja team consists of Dernar and Tebbe, B-section captain Nick Ward, and faculty adviser Dr. Janet Brelin-Fornari, professor of Mechanical Engineering. Joe Gibes, of Janesville, Wis., and Brandan Wade, of Brighton, Mich., helped the team prepare for and run the 2009 Winter Baja competition. The team had additional help from graduate assistant Adam Firestone and members of the Kettering SAE Formula team, including Quinn Griesdale, Will Carter and Louis Post.

About Baja SAE Collegiate Design Series: (From the SAE International web site)

Baja SAE consists of three regional competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are tasked to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain and sometimes even water.

The object of the competition is to provide SAE student members with a challenging project that involves the planning and manufacturing tasks found when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Teams compete against one another to have their design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm. Students must function as a team to not only design, build, test, promote, and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, but also to generate financial support for their project and manage their educational priorities.

All vehicles are powered by a ten-horsepower Intek Model 20 engine donated by Briggs & Stratton Corporation. Use of the same engine by all the teams creates a more challenging engineering design test.

For more information about SAE International’s Collegiate Design Series, visit http://students.sae.org/competitions/

About Winter Baja: (From the Michigan Technological University web site)

Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech) was one of the first schools to participate in the SAE sanctioned Mini Baja with event founder and team advisor Dr. William Shapton. Starting in 1981, Michigan Tech hosted the first ever Winter Baja - an event designed to test the off-road vehicle in winter's worst conditions. Winter Baja was successful during the eighties, but as the decade came to a close, so did Winter Baja. Reinvigorated with a new advisor, the Michigan Tech Mini Baja team redesigned the event format and hosted the rebirth of Winter Baja in 2001. Since that time, the event has continued to grow, and is now one of the largest Mini Baja events in the nation.

For more information about 2009 Winter Baja, visit http://www.baja.mtu.edu/winter_baja.html

Written by Dawn Hibbard

810.762.9865

dhibbard@kettering.edu

Eight Kettering University students took top honors at the Delta Epsilon Chi (DEX) State Career Development Conference in Lansing Feb. 6-8.

Kettering’s two DEX chapters went head to head against students from University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Valparaiso University, ITT Technical Institute, Northwood, Davenport – Grand Rapids and Delta College. Kettering students captured 10 awards: one first place, five second place, and four honorable mentions. 

At the conference, students took exams, solved case study problems, wrote business plans and role-played with industry judges. Of the eight Kettering students who competed this year, seven were new to the competition and had never competed before at Delta Epsilon Chi. Winning the top honors has qualified all eight students to compete in the International Delta Epsilon Chi Career Development Conference in Anaheim, Calif., April 22 - 25.

First Place:

Zachary Paruk of Sterling Heights, Mich., (freshman in Business) and Angela Tremble of Detroit (senior in Mechanical Engineering) in Business to Business Marketing

Second Place

Pirow Bekker of Los Altos, Calif., (freshman in Business) and Isaac Meadows of Longview, Texas, (sophomore in Computer Engineering) in Business to Business Marketing

Lauren Johnson Joshua of Detroit (freshman in Industrial Engineering) in Business Ethics

Isaac Meadows of Longview, Texas, (sophomore in Computer Engineering) in Financial Services

Tyler Finnegan of Elyria, Ohio, (senior in Business) in Human Resources

Tyler Finnegan of Elyria, Ohio, (senior in Business) in Executive Job Interview

Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions are placements between fourth and sixth places.

Pirow Bekker of Los Altos, California, (freshman in Business) in Retail Management

Lauren Johnson Joshua of Detroit (freshman in Industrial Engineering) in Fashion Merchandising Management

Ravi Sharma of Lapeer, Mich., (junior in Business) in Marketing Management

Deana Johnson of Gary, Ind., (freshman in Business) in Human Resource Management

Delta Epsilon Chi is a totally student oriented organization focused on developing future business leaders. The four cornerstones of DEX are career awareness, civic consciousness, social intelligence, and leadership development with competitive events in: Business, Design, Entrepreneurship, Finance & Accounting, Food Service & Culinary, Hospitality & Travel, Information Technology, Management, and Marketing & Sales. Besides the yearly State and International Career Development Conferences in the spring, DEX also sponsors a yearly Leadership Conference in the fall.

The Kettering A and B section chapters are sponsored by the Business Department. The students raise funds by selling snacks in the Business Department lobby. This money helps to offset the registration fees and travel money needed to attend the conferences. To find out more about the two chapters, contact faculty adviser Dr.Karen Cayo, lecturer in the Business Department, at (kcayo@kettering.edu).

Written by Pat Mroczek and Karen Cayo
(810) 762-9533
pmroczek@kettering.edu  

It took a year and a half from when they first heard about the plight of villagers in Estanque de Leon, Mexico, until Kettering’s Engineers Without Borders A-Section developed a solution to their potable water problem.

Between April 2007 and October 2008, the group visited the village three times: to assess the need and resources, to test a prototype and finally to install 45 biosand filters for the 300 people living in this rural northeastern village near the Texas border.

They group identified Estanque de Leon as their first international project after hearing that the lack of potable water caused frequent illness in the adults and threatened the long-term health of the children. They decided to take on the project and use their collective engineering education to design a water filtration system that was cheap, effective and culturally appropriate.

One of their biggest challenges was the lack of electricity in the village and a meager water supply that literally dried up for months during the year. In addition, they navigated difficult roads to reach the village and negotiated with local partners for materials, food, and lodging. “Despite the obstacles, we developed relationships with key community leaders and designed a way to bring potable water to Estanque de Leon,” said Mario Flores, former president of EWB A-Section and team member for the Mexico project.

The team engineered a simple, low-tech solution to the clean drinking water problem; biosand filters.

Biosand filters are a household-sized version of slow sand filters, which are usually large beds of sand that a continuous supply of unfiltered water runs through. The power of these filters is not in the mechanical removal of dirt by the sand, but from a biological process that develops on the top layer of sand.  A layer called the “biolayer” or “smutzdecke” contains many “good” bacteria that get rid of harmful bacteria.  This layer develops naturally in response to the presence of the harmful bacteria and is how a slow sand filter is able to achieve filtration rates of close to 99 percent.

The Kettering group based their design for a biosand filter on one developed by Dr. David H. Manz, P. Eng., P. Ag. (), whose biosand filter features a raised outlet pipe that rises above the sand level and keeps the biolayer alive.

The biolayer, or smutzdecke, is where the majority of filtration occurs. It has many organisms that create a threatening environment for pathogenic organisms. The smutzdecke also improves the absorption of water contaminants, or turbidity, on to the surface of the sand.  The smutzdecke must be maintained by keeping it wet with approximately 5cm of water during periods of in-operation. 

This allows the filter to remain effective even though it does not have a continuous supply of raw water flowing through it at all times.  This design characteristic enables each family in Estanque de Leon to take ownership of their own filter, instead of having a communal slow sand filter.

The group slightly modified Manz’s filter for the Estanque de Leon project, according to Flores and Jeremy Bell, of Collingville, Ill., adapting it to the materials available in the region.  The filtration system uses a combination of the biosand filter and solar disinfection (SODIS) to ensure very high filtration and disinfection rates.  The filtration system is designed for personal home use in order to prevent ownership, maintenance and distribution conflicts in the community.

In addition to the filters, the team also designed, built and installed SODIS racks. The SODIS racks are the last step in the process. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun is actually an excellent disinfector, according to Flores, just as effective as chlorine in bacteria removal, but with a resource that is more renewable (chlorine has to be continually purchased).

After filtering the water through a sand filter it is put into one liter PET plastic bottles and placed on corrugated metal sheets in the sun.  The UV radiation will fully disinfect the water within a few hours.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), for high water consumers, consumption is estimated to be about two liters per day for a 60 kg person.  Based on this metric, the minimum amount of water needed for the community would be 568 L per day[AW1] . The EWB team determined the bottles should be on the SODIS rack for a full day’s worth of sunlight for best results.

To ensure the sustainability of their solution to Estanque de Leon’s potable water problem, the students also designed and delivered one-on-one training sessions to community members.

Preliminary water testing showed that the biosand filters are successful in removing the majority of parasites and bacteria present in the water in the village. Subsequent solar disinfection should result in water that is 100 percent potable.

The low tech aspect of sand and sunlight to purify water is a good choice for remote areas without electricity, explained Dr. Laura Sullivan, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering and EWB adviser. “It doesn’t require a lot of training or excessive translation of instruction,” she said, adding “it doesn’t need much to be sustainable, just minor maintenance.”

“Between initial trip EWB and final trip the government drilled a well in Estanque de Leon,” said Sullivan. “If there is enough water in the well the village won’t have to worry about surface water any more. The problem is that the well is 1,500 meters below ground level, whereas typical wells in Michigan are 20 meters below ground level,” she said.

Sullivan explained that it takes a lot of energy to bring water up 10000+ meters. “The village will need a significant source of energy to raise the water for daily use, they may have to a way to use wind or solar energy since there is no electrical service in the village.”

“We are now in a monitoring stage to make sure the filters are being used properly and see if it is having a positive impact on their health,” Sullivan said.

Many team members who were part of the initial group that chose the Estanque de Leon project, graduated before installation of the biosand filters. Throughout the project, the following people have been involved in bringing potable water to the village:

Mentors
Erin Clancy ’04
Stacy Gardner ’06
Nadine Thor, director Environmental Health and Safety at Kettering University
Adam Ward
Melissa Ward

Team Members
Ife Bancolé
Jeremy Bell
Mario Flores
Miguel Flores
Joy Jeyaratnam
Aaron Kuykendall
Gabriela Morín
Michael Neumeyer
Rukayat Oyedele
Shana Paciocco
Elizabeth Santos
Natalie Slattery
Melissa Scholl
Matthew Schumacher
Matthew Schwartz
Josh Stanton
Rachael Tamez
Andrew Thornton
Claire Utrecht
Kenneth Weimer

Kettering’s EWB A-Section would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance of:
Kettering University
General Motors Foundation
Engineers Without Borders USA
Banco de Alimentos de Saltillo A.C.
Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila
Diocesis de Saltillo Hospital Guadalupano,
AC
Emerson Climate Technologies, and
Engineers Without Borders-Kettering University

Written by Dawn Hibbard
810.762.9865
dhibbard@ketteirng.edu 
 

Like most Kettering University students, Jeremy Bell, 24, of Collinsville, Ill., had the world by the tail; he was getting an education in the high-demand field of Engineering and he already had a few years of professional experience on his resume thanks to his co-op employment. But at 20 the Mechanical Engineering major was already asking “Is this enough? If I make a lot of money, will I be happy?”

Almost afraid to answer his own question, Bell was feeling jaded and disillusioned. Then serendipity intervened, he saw a simple flyer on a bulletin board announcing the formation of an Engineers Without Borders chapter on campus.

“I thought the idea of doing stuff for others was for ‘chumps,’ but I was desperate enough to try anything,” he said. “I helped with the first project, ‘Climbing Through Flint,’ and have been hooked on service ever since.” The ‘Climbing Through Flint’ project built a handicapped accessible piece of playground equipment on every elementary school playground in Flint, Mich.

That first, locally-focused project led to the first international project for the group and the first step for Bell, who graduated Kettering University in December 2008, into nothing short of a calling.

The EWB-A Section group’s second project, introduced by then group president Mario Flores, of Saltillo, Mexico, was to engineer a way for villagers in Estanque de Leon, in north central Mexico, to have safe drinking water.  

The desert community’s water supply is an open source reservoir that is contaminated by the environmental and animal waste.  The result is rampant illnesses within the community. In addition, due to semi-desert conditions and low rainfall, the village would go a month every year without any water, said EWB adviser Dr. Laura Sullivan, professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering.

“Our challenge was to find some way to clean their water without any electricity, batteries, or pumps,” said Bell.  “This was just the kind of challenge that a Kettering student loves to hear.  I had zero knowledge about water filtration, or working with severely limiting parameters.  However, every day I would research, learn, build, and test some concept.  Although I wasn’t being paid for all these long hours of work, I was loving the process and having a great time!”

EWB A-Section made three trips to Estanque de Leon, the first was an assessment trip to determine what resources were available and the challenges the group would have to face developing a system to provide safe drinking water.

“Although we were there to collect data about the village’s water, health and economic situation, the trip helped make the project very personal for me,” Bell said. “The relationships we built in the community were all the motivation I needed to get to work to find a solution.”

The second trip was made to test two pilot biosand filters the group engineered, to determine if the design would work in real-world applications and to collect feedback before the final installation. Working on a fairly tight deadline, group members held weekly phone conferences and worked on the pilot filters at night and on weekends during their co-op employment rotation.

Biosand filters are a household-sized version of slow sand filters and able to achieve filtration rates of close to 99 percent.

On the final implementation trip in October 2008, many of the original team EWB members had graduated and moved on to full-time employment. Bell and Flores went as mentors to the next “generation” of EWB A-Section.

“It was a very interesting dynamic, because we brought a lot of underclassmen on the trip,” said Bell.  “It was a great experience and I’m glad it happened the way it did.  I see supporting and training the next generation of humanitarian leaders as one of my most crucial responsibilities.  I hope to be a platform where others can use me to reach their potential.  All of them did a fantastic job, and now the next generation of EWB students are going apply what they learned in Estanque de Leon to a water project in Africa,” he said. 

Bell, Flores, Erin Clancy ’04, Stacy Gardner ’06, and Adam and Melissa Ward, were the senior team members working with about 17 underclassmen and Nadine Thor, director Environmental Health and Safety at Kettering, to deliver and install the filters.

The team provided 45 biosand filters to service all 57 families living in the Estanque de Leon community. Preliminary water testing showed that the biosand filters are successful in removing the majority of parasites and bacteria present in the village water supply.

Bell’s participation in the Estanque de Leon water project transformed the lives of villagers accustomed to contaminated water resources and the illnesses it caused. It also transformed Bell and his EWB team members.

“The people of Estanque de Leon showed me that love is always in the present and not in the future or past, and that happiness is always in front of me for the taking,” said Bell. “I no longer have the thoughts, ‘Oh, I’ll be happy when I have “this” or if “that” happens.’”

“In addition, the magic of so many people lending a helping hand back home in the states was really inspiring. Time and time again, I was inspired by the people who asked, ‘How can I help?’ when they heard the story. One example that sticks out in my mind is when I wanted to test a ceramic pot filter concept.  I went to the Flint Institute of Arts and met with ceramics artist and instructor Guy Adamek. He surprised me with his enthusiasm and let me use his supplies and facility to build prototypes.”

After installing the biosand filter in Estanque de Leon, Bell and Flores realized they had hit upon a simple solution to a growing problem in developing countries world wide. They have decided to take the Estanque de Leon water project to a wider audience.

“Mario Flores and I realize that we have a piece of information that can help a lot of people,” said Bell, “considering that contaminated water affects more than 1.3 billion people in the world. But we have a solution! The technology is effective and only costs about $60 in materials per filter. 

“There is only one thing keeping this information from reaching the people that need it the most and that’s ‘human-will,’ someone to just do it,” said Bell.  “I’m not sure if I’m the best one for the job, but I’ll do the best that I can,” he said of his plan to return to Estanque de Leon and contact other small villages in Mexico about using biosand filters.

“I love seeing the magic of everyday people putting together their efforts and abilities to make some powerful things happen.  So many people are willing to give of themselves when given the opportunity,” he said.

In preparing and planning for his return to Mexico, Bell is finding that willingness in unexpected places. An engineer who saw the group’s video on YouTube offered to help Bell build a do-it-yourself wind turbine to give him a little electricity in the desert, a girl from Australia randomly found his website (www.globalize-this.org) and donated to the project, NOW foods sent him a case of seed sprouts as a source of dense nutrition in the desert, and his fifth grade teacher (that he hadn’t seen in years) sent him a $200 check after reading his story in a St. Louis, Mo., newspaper. 

“By doing this kind of work, I get to experience random acts of kindness every day,” said Bell. “I can’t imagine anything better than that!”

Not only has Bell experienced the generosity of strangers, he has learned a lot about himself. “I thought that the people of Estanque de Leon would be the main benefactors of this project and I would be the hero on my white horse. In the middle of the project, I realized that I was the main benefactor. 

“I experienced a liberation in my thoughts as all the things that I used to stress-out about started to melt away.  The reward for the project wasn’t seeing the filters built; the rewards came every day for me, as I learned more about who I am as a person.  So I want to continue this work because it teaches me something about myself every day, and the more I give, the more vibrant and rich life becomes.”

Where he once saw engineering as a way to make a comfortable living, Bell now sees engineering as a way to transform the world. “I realized that Kettering engineers are a powerful force that could literally move mountains in this world,” he said.

Despite the initial water project receiving funding through a grant to Kettering University from General Motors, Bell is more interested in what can be done at a grassroots level than seeking corporate sponsorship.  His return-to-Mexico project is mostly funded through small individual donations. 

Through his non-profit organization “Globalize This,” Bell and Flores created a t-shirt design they are going to be using as a fundraiser in the month of February. “Six students at different campuses around the United States and even Canada have accepted the small challenge of selling 20 shirts each,” he said.  “Mario and I will also be looking toward civic groups and grants to cover some of the larger costs, like the plane ticket, allowing more of the individual contributions to go directly toward water filtration.”

His plan is to go to Mexico in March for approximately six months to gather data on how the filters are performing, and possibly visit other villages to share the biosand filter concept. He is trying to get enough funding to cover: the cost of one round trip ticket to and from Mexico, food expenses for six months so he is not an economic burden on the village and an alternative source of energy (i.e. wind or solar) to run a laptop in the desert  and a laptop.

He and Flores also hope to raise funds to build and spread water filtration technology to other villages. To help accomplish all this he is building a network of supporters in different fields including engineers, writers, artists, programmers and others, who can donate their skill whenever the need arises.

Some of that support is already at work addressing the need. “Mario Flores and his family have gone above and beyond in their contribution to this work,” said Bell. “His family lives in Saltillo, Mexico, and provides a lot of the in-country logistical support.

“The other EWB members, although now busy with jobs and surviving the economy, continue to be a source of support in many ways, whether it’s advice about how to make a webpage or by making a donation.

“And the faculty at Kettering also continues to be a source of support. Professor Laura Sullivan and Nadine Thor are what Cornel West calls, ‘long-distance runners for justice.’  They have inspired me and so many other Kettering students to become great individuals in our own way,” he said.

From jaded 20-year-old engineering student to an engineer with a cause, Bell sums it up this way: “Building water filters has become my worship of sorts. I show my appreciation for life and everything that I have one water filter at a time. I’m addicted to forming relationships and to being of service to others.”

For more information on Bell’s work, visit his website at  www.globalize-this.org.

Written by Dawn Hibbard

810.762.9865

dhibbard@kettering.edu

Some call it insane. Others naïve. Who in their right mind would start a business given these historic economic times, particularly in Michigan?

The data: the U.S. is poised to show the highest unemployment rate in the last several decades. Home foreclosures abound and the financial markets are a nightmare. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Michigan alone lost almost 200,000 manufacturing jobs from 2000-2007, one of the largest drops throughout the U.S. in that time span. In recent days, GM stock dropped to $3.04 a share, representing a historic plunge for one of the Big Three automakers.

But for Kettering University in Flint, student entrepreneurs look at this moment in U.S. history as one ripe with opportunity. And the Kettering Entrepreneur Society (KES, www.kesociety.com) helps them cultivate their entrepreneurial leanings through a number of resources made available through grants from the Kern Family Foundation.

The KES is a student-lead organization that sponsors business plan competitions, provides support services and seed funding for start-up businesses in an effort at promoting an entrepreneurial culture at Kettering based on innovation. Developed through the efforts of Dr. Massoud Tavakoli, professor of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Andy Borchers, interim head of the Dept. of Business, with assistance from Dr. William Riffe, professor of Manufacturing Engineering, entrepreneurial studies and the KES have shown tremendous success in attracting students interested in exploring their business ideas and launching a number of viable companies in Michigan.  

One of those companies is Prime Studios LLC (http://www.primestudiosllc.com), founded by Kettering Seniors Matthew Gaidica and Brad Birdsall, both of Northville, Mich. This creative design organization has used its network at Kettering to help promote their services by working with Engineers Without Borders (EWB), the Kettering University Bulldog Hockey Team, Youth of Tomorrow and through services as the primary sponsor of Green Week 2008 earlier this year.

Although web and graphic design functions represent a significant portion of their work portfolio, Prime Studios has won grants and sponsorship for various research activities. The organization’s most recent project is “e.M.A.P.,” which stands for “Emulate, Model, Analyze and Predict.” This project is an electronic ballistics mapping system. According to Gaidica, Prime Studios will launch a new website by the end of 2008 that focuses on project portfolio and services.  

Gaidica, who majors in Electrical Engineering and will graduate in 2010, said he became involved in KES a year ago and currently serves as B-Section president.

Participation in the KES provides him and his partners networking opportunities and access to seed money, which helped support efforts to launch Prime Studios.

“I think starting a business is the easy part. Maintaining and growing it is how we measure success. Most importantly, surrounding yourself with like-minded people who can offer advice from their experiences is priceless and Kettering is home to some of the most determined people I have ever met,” Gaidica said.

And although Prime Studios LLC is a firm unaffected by the Michigan economy since much of the company’s work is conducted electronically and via the internet, other student businesses are taking advantage of the economic challenges.  

For Marc Alexander, a senior Business Management student from Pontiac, Mich., helping youth from Michigan develop their educational and professional skills is crucial in supporting the state economy. Youth of Tomorrow (YOT, http://www.yoft.org/), which he started in 2005, provides youth with career-related programs through area specialization, personal development and enhanced communication skills. Some of their specific programs include Engineers of Tomorrow, Special Security Agency, Business Builders, Future All-Star League and Attorneys of Tomorrow.

Alexander became involved in the KES because of the opportunity “to not only grow as a person but as a business owner,” he said.

Although the seed money from the KES is helpful, he pointed out that for him and his organization, the most beneficial aspect of the society is the information. “To receive seed money, one needs to develop a proposal and presentation, and then present it to the society. After doing this, I am now able to use this same process and present our organization to investors and partners,” he said.

Today, the growing organization enjoys more than 14 important relationships with Michigan organizations and companies, including the Boy Scouts of America Clinton Valley Council and Michigan State University’s Extension Program. In addition, he’s proud to offer services in Michigan.

“I see Youth of Tomorrow as the solution to our economic challenges,” Alexander said, adding that “we invest in one of the most important resources that will help our state—the future of our youth.”

Other businesses established with help from KES include RateMyStudentRental.com developed by Kristen Winter of Alpena, Mich., who graduated with a Business Management degree in June, Blake Gowing of Colton, N.Y., who earned his degree in Industrial Engineering, also in June 2008, and Steve Schwartz of Ann Arbor, Mich., who graduated with a dual degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering in June as well.

Schwartz, like his partners, was interested in starting businesses and meeting people who shared the same idea, and found that through the KES, he was able to share experiences and resources, which became invaluable. The result of their collaboration is www.RateMyStudentRental.com, a site that provides information to student renters and connects them to reputable housing and landlords.

“I considered starting a business when I was a sophomore and started one that sold used car parts online,” Schwartz said. “At the time, I didn’t have the financing to design and build a website, so I taught myself. Within six months, more people asked me to design and construct their sites more so than those who needed to buy car parts, so I took the opportunity and incorporated a web design and development company called NO BS Web Design,” he added.

Since March of this year, the organization has been selling services to landlords and several universities around Michigan, with the hope of expanding the offering to schools outside of Michigan. Recently, the organization launched a School Partnership Program and began discussions with several major universities to implement their platform as the official on and off campus housing portal.

Schwartz believes that the challenging economic conditions currently experienced by Michigan represent the “absolute best environment for starting a business,” he said, “because it weeds out a lot of competition and makes a genuinely useful and creative business model not just a marketable advantage, but a necessity for survival.”

As a result of this approach, Schwartz and Winter, along with Kettering Computer Engineering major Benjamin Talavera of Nashville, Tenn., also created Alfa Jango LLC Software and Marketing (www.alfajango.com), a consulting firm with a nationwide customer base. Some of the firm’s clients include engineering companies ranging from start-ups such as btb Party Bus of Ann Arbor, to well established organizations such as PROCON Products of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Underground Printing of Ann Arbor.  

Scott Skelton, a ME major from Bellville, Mich., who will graduate June 2009, started his first company as a senior in high school but it wasn’t until he became a member of the KES that things really took off. The organization, High Performance Outlet (www.HighPerformanceOutlet.com), offers customers the highest quality high performance auto parts and services at the lowest price available.

Thanks to seed money, resources and networking through the KES, he also launched www.BookDealFinder.com, which offers college students a free service to compare prices on college textbooks. This service saves students a great amount of time and money when locating texts for class. Currently, Skelton has forged partnerships with 20-25 textbook and ebook vendors that support his business model.

Over the past few years, High Performance Outlet has grown “at an exponential rate,” Skelton said. “BookDealFinder.com has also shown considerable growth, but the website hasn’t caught traction yet since we just launched it less than a year ago,” he added.

Nonetheless, both businesses benefit tremendously from Skelton’s participation with the KES and Michigan’s economy withstanding, he feels both will succeed during challenging economic conditions.

“I chose to start a business in the state because I was born and raised here. And although Michigan’s economic conditions aren’t that great right now, it doesn’t mean that businesses can’t prosper. Business owners just need to be smart with the way they do business. The KES experience opens new doors, teaches necessary skills and sharpens one’s ability to work and communicate with a broad range of people,” he concluded.

The KES fulfils a long-standing need and desire on the part of students to tap into their entrepreneurial spirit, according to Dr. Massoud Tavakoli.

“As the leading cooperative education institution in the country, providing entrepreneurship studies and opportunities that can help our local and state economies while driving innovative ideas are critical to how well our state develops economically,” he said.

For information about the Kettering Entrepreneur Society, visit the website at www.kesociety.com. To speak with the faculty advisor, Dr. Massoud Tavakoli, email mtavakol@kettering.edu.

Written by Gary J. Erwin

810-762-9538

gerwin@kettering.edu

Kettering  University's Sigma Chi Zeta Theta Chapter celebrated its 45th anniversary as one of the leading Greek organizations on campus and helped raise money for an important cause. 

The event, which took place Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Captain’s Club of Woodfield in Grand Blanc, brought together more than 180 Kettering/GMI Sigma Chi Zeta Theta members from as far away as California and ranging in graduation years from 1965 to 2008.

Featured speakers included Dr. Liberty, president of the University, who gave an update on new initiatives at Kettering, including the addition of new programs and engagement efforts in regional socio-economic development. Some of the other honored guests and speakers included the following:

• Robert Florian ’82, who gave the invocation;
• Richard Hester ’77 (Ball State), 59th grand consul who discussed Sigma Chi International and several leadership development programs conducted each year;
• Frank McDonald ’65, who offered reflections from the organizations first year on campus in 1963;
• Paul Cloutier ’92, who emceed the event and provided an update on the Sigma Chi Theta Zeta House Corporation, which owns and manages the Chapter’s home in Flushing; and
• Matt Burtch ’04, who presented Sigma Chi-Kettering Scholarship Awards.

During the event, B-Section Chapter President Chris Bidlake spoke about the chapter’s community service, philanthropy, student involvement and brotherhood development. For example, in a three-month period last year, the chapter engaged in more than 600 hours of community service, raised $4,000 for the Children’s Miracle Network and more than $1,100 for the Huntsman Cancer Institute.  

“A lot of hard work and planning turn this into a great night,” Bidlake said. “The silent auction was a great success and helped raise more than $5,000 for house renovations and an education fund for the children of Scott Gearhart ’82 and his wife, Barb, who died tragically in a boating accident this October,” he added.

Cloutier, who is vice president of Sales and Marketing for Microposite Inc. in Auburn Hills, Mich., as well as a member of the Kettering University Alumni Association Board of Directors, said that everyone in attendance were thrilled to meet up again. “Judging by the smiles and positive feedback from alumni, the event was a great success. I think the Sigma Chi Zeta Theta 45^th Anniversary shows that there is tremendous opportunity for Greek organizations and Kettering leadership to execute these events in a collaborative fashion. In addition to learning about our strong chapter, it provides alumni who may have missed Kettering’s Alumni Reunion Weekend an opportunity to hear about all the great progress the school is making,” he added.  

Dr. Liberty was equally impressed with the turnout and overall celebration. “Given the organization’s long history of developing leaders who graduated from this institution, I’m not surprised at how many returned to celebrate this important day,” he said, adding “this celebration also provided a unique opportunity for alumni and friends to visit the Kettering campus and see first hand the forward progress the institution continues to make,” he added. At the conclusion of the dinner program, Dr. Liberty, an accomplished pianist, accompanied the brothers as they sang “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi” to the ladies.  

Cloutier also said that what makes Sigma Chi special is the amount of alumni support provided to the Chapter each year. For example, many alumni participate in renovation projects to enhance the living conditions and foster an increasingly safer, more conducive learning environment.

Because Sigma Chi and Kettering are partners in the formation of undergraduate leaders, and determined to enhance the institution’s progress and overall health, Cloutier hopes alumni will continue to support the institution.

“Sigma Chi  Zeta Theta cannot be successful if Kettering is not successful,” he said, adding that Dr. Liberty did an admirable job articulating the excitement and success that exists on campus.

Written by Gary J. Erwin

810.762.9538

gerwin@kettering.edu