In addition to the ME 481 Senior Capstone class, there are six design courses required of all Mechanical Engineering majors. Three of those courses participate in Design Day. For the complete competition schedules, please see the Design Day Booklet.

In ME 371 Mechanical Design I students are required to design and manufacture mechanisms that incorporate at least one linkage, one gear set and one cam-follower combination.

These projects are on display during Design Day from 9:00 until noon in Parlor A, Second Floor of the MSU Union. The team with the best design, as voted on by pre-collegiate visitors, is awarded the Sparty Plaque.

In ME 471 Mechanical Design II students were asked to design a lift mechanism for air cargo shipping containers. The lift must fit two standard PMC air cargo containers, as depicted in the figure below (taken from Delta.com website), which includes dimensions and weight. The loading/unloading heights are 1meter (low), and 5 meters (high). Students will present their designs, simulations and scale prototypes.

The competition is held in the Ballroom, Second floor of the MSU Union from 9:00 until 11:00. The winning team receives the Leonardo da Vinci Machine Design Award. Please see the Design Day Booklet for information on the competition schedule.

The ME 412 Heat Transfer Laboratory project involves looking at efficient ways of converting solar energy into heated air that will then provide buoyancy to lift a payload.  The project team is to design, analyze, build, and test a hot air balloon that will float with the assistance of sunlight only (or an equivalent source). The device will begin at room temperature and there are no restrictions on size; however, no part of the balloon may be closer than 45 cm to the heat source. The objective will be to maximize the weight of a payload that can be lifted by the balloon, as well as to minimize the time to become airborne. A device must be manufactured by the project team. To test the device, two infrared lamps that provide approximately 500 W will be used.

This competition takes place in the Ballroom, Second Floor of the MSU Union from 9:00 until 11:20 on Design Day. Please see the Design Day Booklet for information on the competition schedule.