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Work by Raritan Valley Community College Engineering and Visual Communication majors was recognized on a national level at a recent Engineering conference, held April 27-28 at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

A paper by RVCC Engineering student Esther Hiamang earned Second Place honors (Graduate Division) at the American Society of Engineering Education’s (ASEE-NE) 2018 Northeast Section Conference. The paper, “Contactless Magnetic Gears – A Project Based Learning Approach to Understanding Magnetic Gear Systems,” will be published in the Conference Proceedings.

Hiamang, a resident of Easton, PA, who is studying Civil Engineering at the College, presented the work with RVCC Professor Peter Stupak. She conducted her research with Professor Stupak during the Fall 2017 Semester.

Interested in learning more about mechanical gear systems and magnetism, Hiamang investigated a system of mechanical gears that uses non-contact magnetic “gear teeth” instead of normal physical gear teeth. Focusing her research on such subjects as magnetic fields, force and motion, she used theoretical analysis and construction of a contactless magnetic gear system to obtain results. Her paper describes the learning methods and details the reasoning behind each procedure, and how an evidence-based process can significantly improve a student’s understanding of highly abstract concepts such as magnetic fields in mechanical systems.

The conference also featured a paper highlighting a collaborative, interdisciplinary work created by RVCC’s Authentic Engineering Experience Team and Professor Darren McManus' Visual Design class. The paper, “Backpacking Tent Light – An Engineering/Visual Communication Interdisciplinary Product Development,” describes the Backpacking Tent Light that provides 30 minutes of green-energy, battery-free illumination for backpacking in a mountain-tent environment. The paper’s authors include Adam Walton of Hillsborough, Tyler Sarno of Flemington, Rachel Geiler of Pittstown, Kimberly Tsui of Hillsborough, Laure Turlybekova of Summit and Erick Hernandez of Stewartsville, as well as Professor McManus.

The Engineering Student Team consisted of two second-year Engineering students participating in an Authentic Engineering Experience course where they were asked to design, prototype, build and deliver a real product to a real customer—in this case, RVCC Professor Darren McManus—in one semester. The Visual Communication Student Team, composed of nine Visual Communication majors enrolled in the Fall 2017 Visual Design 1 course, were each tasked with developing a complete graphic identity for the product. This included a unique product name; a logo; corporate collateral, such as business cards, envelopes and letterhead; a series of print advertisements; and product packaging based on the envisioned target market for the product.

For additional information about the Authentic Engineering Experience at RVCC, contact Professor Peter Stupak, peter.stupak@raritanval.edu.

Raritan Valley Community College’s main campus is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. For further information, visit www.raritanval.edu.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 18, 2018

Media contact: Donna Stolzer, 908-526-1200, ext. 8383

PR #155