Hands-on Education: Pitt students put new labs to the test

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Hands-on Education: Pitt students put new labs to the test

Thursday, April 19, 2001

By Eve Modzelewski, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Beneath the University of Pittsburgh's campus, in subterranean Oakland, there's a high-tech breeding ground.

Dave Chekan of Archbald, Lackawanna County, models the "JackHeat," a jacket heated via battery power. He and two other engineering students designed it and brought it to the prototype phase, winning a competitive second-place prize of $400. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

It's a place where students can take wild imaginings and nurture them from concept to design to actual product -- from something as simple as a hard hat to as complex as a robotic hand. A heated ski jacket, a power tailgate system and -- this being college, after all -- an improved beer tap mechanism are among the creations spawned by students so far.

This brainstorming and creation is happening at the new Swanson Center for Product Innovation, located in the basement of Pitt's School of Engineering. The $4 million center was formally dedicated yesterday, with the opening of its fourth laboratory, a rapid-manufacturing facility that will allow students to produce batches of their newfangled products.

The other three facilities, which have been open all school year, include a design lab, a multimedia presentation lab and a prototyping and reverse-engineering lab.

Students have used the facilities to create prototypes for their products. Now, with the addition of the manufacturing lab, they will be able to make as many as 200 replicas per day.

Some of the first students to use the Swanson Center created a robotic hand and a robotic eye, both in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. Others have worked on a wireless modem for personal comuputers, a redesigned wheelchair and a meat temperature sensor.

All semester, students collaborated in 10 groups of three to four, ultimately competing against each other for cash prizes, which were awarded yesterday.

The students spent the bulk of their semester in the design lab, using any of 10 high-end graphical workstations to develop a virtual "paperless" design for their products.

Then, they sent their designs to the prototyping and reverse-engineering lab, where a three-dimensional "printing" machine created wax models of their products. The models were refined and improved; then a sturdier prototype was made.

The first-place winners -- who were awarded a $1,000 check to split three ways -- created a power tailgate system for Daniel Hill's Chevrolet pickup truck.

Hill, a senior mechanical engineering major, said using the Swanson Center made developing the device much easier than projects he'd worked on before, especially since it is open to students 24 hours a day.

"The best part of it was designing a product and actually implementing it," Hill said. His group -- which also included Ricardo Valenzuela Rodriguez, a senior mechanical engineering major, and Jeffrey Oppenheim, a senior industrial engineering major -- spent close to 500 hours throughout the semester working on the tailgate system, which automatically opens and closes.

The group is now working on an installation manual and examining ways to market the product.

Students view the creations as more than just class projects. They're viable products that have the potential to reach a larger market, not to mention make them some money.

In fact, some student projects were commissioned by outside companies, such as Respironics Inc. The maker of breathing devices and related products, which will soon move its Forest Hills headquarters to Murrysville, where it has a factory, sponsored a group that created the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Interface, a mask used to prevent breathing problems related to sleep apnea.

University of Pittsburgh placement/career director Marvin Roth watches as a pattern is cut into a proofing board at the new John A. Swanson Center for Productive Innovation. Engineering students use the labs there to make product prototypes. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

Mine Safety Appliances, based in O'Hara, has worked with students at the Swanson Center to redesign a safety hard hat. And a local inventor, looking to create a prototype for a new bicycle transmission, employed the services of students at the Swanson Center.

Students also have collaborated with Pitt's McGowan Center for Artificial Organ Development to develop a heart pump.

Entrepreneurs and businesses can work with the Swanson Center in three ways: a fee-for-service basis; a four-month undergraduate design project; or a one- to two-year graduate research project.

"We take great pride in the fact that the center has the potential to become a major resource for regional industry," said Mark A. Nordenberg, Pitt's chancellor. The center, he said, would serve as training ground for an adequate pool of suitably trained engineers.

The second-place winners, who worked on their own and not with a company, created JackHeat, a heated jacket made of lightweight Gorix and powered by eight double-A batteries.

Senior computer engineering majors Dave Chekan and Matthew Hoopes and senior marketing major Victoria MacLaren hope JackHeat becomes a hit with consumers. After they graduate this semester, they plan to seek funding to continue developing their product.

Besides product development and manufacture, the center also helps with marketing. Its multimedia lab can be used to create spiffy presentations for potential clients or investors.

Pitt students Ricardo Valenzuela Rodriguez of Monterrey, Mexico, left; Daniel Hill of Monroeville, center; and Jeffrey Oppenheim of Charleroi use their Remote Tailgate, which controls the tailgate on Hill's Chevy pickup truck. The trio won first place and $1,000 in the student competition. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette)

John A. Swanson, the center's namesake, is a prime example of that type of alliance between business and engineering. He received a doctorate from Pitt's engineering school in 1966 and went on to found Ansys Inc., a computer-aided engineering software concern in Southpointe.

Swanson, who attended yesterday's dedication and helped judge the student projects, said it was important to have learning facilities that spanned all areas of engineering.

"You want the student ... to have the total experience, from concept to product," he said.

A fifth lab, a Micro Electro Mechanical Systems facility, similar to a computer chip manufacturing plant, is scheduled to open at the center this summer. There, students will create microscopic machines for devices such as cell phones, biomedical tools and other small-scale products.

So far, about 80 bioengineering and engineering students have used the labs since they opened at the beginning of the school year -- an encouraging sign to Michael Lovell, the center's director.

One of its goals is to channel creativity and entrepreneurial spirit into engineering, he said. "Our future success really relies upon the collaboration we have with local industry and entrepreneurs."