YSU engineering students turn trash to treasure

By Denise Dick | October 2, 2015 at 12:07a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

One person’s trash is another’s treasure – or class project.

First-year engineering students at Youngstown State University constructed vehicles out of recycled materials for Kerry Meyers’ class.

“It’s a fun experiment, but they’re also required to collect data and run statistics,” said Meyers, director of YSU’s first-year engineering program.

The finished vehicles had to complete three runs down a ramp in Moser Hall on Thursday – rolling rather than sliding – and travel at least 24 inches beyond the ramp’s end.

Parts used included plastic bottles and drink bottles, straws, coffee can lids, pieces of paper plates, bottle caps, chopsticks and compact discs.

William Graham of Jamestown, Pa., and Vince Belica of Niles made their car using an empty Propel Fitness Water bottle for the body, wooden skewers for the axles and cup lids they procured from the Cushwa Cafe for wheels.

They used two AA batteries and one AAA battery they found in a battery recycling receptacle on campus dropped inside the bottle.

The car traveled to the wall in the Moser Hall lobby on each of its three trials.

Graham said he drinks a lot of the fitness water so it was an easy find. The batteries added weight, adding to the distance, Belica said.

“We didn’t use too many [batteries] because we didn’t want to weigh it down,” Graham said.

The team tried to build the car for maximum speed and distance.

“We made it aerodynamic,” Belica said.

Allison Griswold and Andrea Beck, both of Canfield, and Josh McGoogan of Leetonia used an empty seasonings container for their car’s body with CDs for the wheels.

Theirs didn’t travel as far as Belica’s and Graham’s vehicle, but they were happy with its performance. It exceeded the travel requirement of 24 inches beyond the ramp’s end.

Beck said the holes pierced in the seasoning container to affix the axles were difficult to make even, making the ride a tad wobbly.

Students’ grades take into consideration originality, creativity, robustness and team spirit.