SAMPE Lightweight Aircraft Wing Competition Garners Top Prizes

On Tuesday, May 20, 55 teams of university students competed at SAMPE '08 in Long Beach, California, to determine which team built the strongest lightweight aircraft wing.

Four student teams from the University of Maryland College Park's department of aerospace engineering entered the Wing Design, Build and Test Competition. The one individual and three project teams all placed in the top six, which earned the Maryland SAMPE Student Chapter over $700 in prize money:

2nd Place: Ben Woods, PhD student

3rd Place: Team Y: Jeffrey Pace, Peter Rohr, Pat O'Connor, Brian Patrick, Roberto Semidey, Chris Schooler

4th Place: Team Omega: Nathaniel Brown, Brandon Geraghty, Brandon Hall, Anish Sydney, Ian Higgins, Emin Azariah

6th Place: Team X: Frank Graham, Ria Malhan, Ilmo Koo, Anand Saxena, Lina Castano, Jay Sanchez, Byungseok Yoo

The three project teams were from aerospace professor Norman Wereley's ENAE-425/654 Mechanics of Composite Structures class.

In total, $7000 in cash and prizes were awarded to winners, thanks to the generosity of dozens of contest sponsors. As part of the SAMPE ’08 conference and exhibition, this program creates great interest with industry leaders, exhibitors and students to observe new and creative composite building material projects. Each contest entry required a poster, featuring details about the materials and construction of each Lightweight Wing.

Dr. Howard Kliger, president, HS Kliger & Associates, Somerset, NJ, and chair of the contest for the past 11 years, willingly takes on the coordination of this project. “Their innovative work coupled with the energy of these young engineers not only excites, but also gives me hope the next great aerospace and civil engineers might be right here in Long Beach.”

Published June 6, 2008