This past Tuesday, for the third time in its recent history, the College of Engineering at UNT held the Solar Powered Winch and Cart Race, which makes up a small part of the Engineering Week at UNT. Other activities this week include catered lunches from a local barbecue called Metzler’s, a gaming competition, and the always interesting poster competition. Dr. Matthew J. Traum, Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Energy Engineering Department, officiated the solar powered race. For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Traum is the creator of the increasingly popular engineering competition that challenges participants to couple their design and building skills with alternative energy sources.
The competition was stacked high with several participants from the Mechanical and Energy Engineering department, but for the first time, one group of students from the Mechanical Engineering Technology Department decided to enter the race. I could see from their design that they would have a good run. Their winch was made out of welded together steel and their cart was made with the same material, only much lighter. Their knowledge of welding and access to materials was clearly evident.
At first the atmosphere in the room was laid back; students chatting, sizing up the carts, while at the same time having a laugh. But after the time trials...things got a little more serious. What’s this? The ETEC boys had the fastest time in the trials! MEE now had reason for concern. We don’t want to let our professor down. Surely one MEE student would have a faster cart than ETEC.
After several more runs, it was clear that the ETEC cart was the best. Hopefully in the future, ETEC can bequeath some of its unused materials and resources for other departments to use. 
