MSU student engineering team: 'Have snowboard, will travel!'

Contact: Phil Hearn

<br /><br /> SNOWBOARDING IN DIXIE--Mississippi State snowboarders (l.r) Becky Smith of Vicksburg, David Neaves of Kosciusko, Ben Hartenbower of Lostant, Ill. and Paul Allison of Winona are among engineering students who have designed and built a mostly all.paper snowboard for a unique collegiate sporting event in Colorado Saturday [April 3]. With no snow in Mississippi this winter, however, they were unable to test their creative entry.


SNOWBOARDING IN DIXIE--Mississippi State snowboarders (l.r) Becky Smith of Vicksburg, David Neaves of Kosciusko, Ben Hartenbower of Lostant, Ill. and Paul Allison of Winona are among engineering students who have designed and built a mostly all.paper snowboard for a unique collegiate sporting event in Colorado Saturday [April 3]. With no snow in Mississippi this winter, however, they were unable to test their creative entry.

"Have snowboard, will travel!" could be the rallying cry for a group of Mississippi State engineering majors heading to Colorado this weekend to compete in a unique collegiate sporting event.

The eight university seniors--seven in chemical engineering and one in mechanical engineering--vie Saturday [April 3] against 13 other teams in the 2004 Energy Challenge. The event takes place at the Winter Park Resort.

Each team has spent the past several months designing and building a snowboard with wood-fiber materials. The virtually all-paper vehicles will be tested for speed and durability during three timed races down the gentle slope of a practice slalom course.

MSU's board is approximately five feet, six inches long, with a birch frame curved by soaking in water and a fill of corrugated cardboard. Designed with aluminum edges to cut through the snow--metal is allowed only for this purpose--it's held together by liquid nails and a two-ton strength epoxy.

The MSU team, however, faced a climatic problem unique to the Deep South.

"We couldn't really test it," said captain Becky Smith of Vicksburg, noting an absence of snow in East Central Mississippi this winter meant there would be no trial runs until the day before the race. The team leaves Starkville Thursday.

David Neaves of Kosciusko will ride the MSU entry, while Paul Allison of Winona, the lone mechanical engineering major on the squad, serves as back-up. Happily for MSU, both are experienced snowboarders.

"We expect the competition to test the board, not the rider," said Smith, whose parents, Terry and Susan, are both MSU engineering graduates.

Other team members making the trip include Haley Parsons and Leslie Renfroe, both of Vicksburg, Mason Faggert of Hattiesburg, Ben Hartenbower of Lostant, Ill., and Aaron Smith of Brandon.

Warren English of Columbia, Jenny Mask of Saltillo and Dave Layton of Starkville are chemical engineering majors who participated in the project but will not make the trip.

"These are folks who were interested in the project and took part in the design and construction process because of their interest in the pulp and paper manufacturing industry," explained faculty adviser Cliff George, a professor in MSU's Swalm School of Chemical Engineering.

All MSU participants are members of TAPPI, the campus chapter of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.

The national competition is designed to focus attention on energy use, recycling and waste reduction issues in the pulp and paper industry. Sponsors include the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology's Institute of Paper Science and Technology, and Denver-based Never Summer Snowboard Manufacturing Co.

In addition to MSU and Georgia Tech, other competing university teams include Lamar, Miami of Ohio, North Carolina State, State University of New York/College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Temple, Colorado-Denver, Central Florida, Maine, and Western Michigan. Joining them will be groups from Pasadena (Calif.) City College, Savannah (Ga.) College of Art and Design and Spartan School of Aeronautics (Tulsa, Okla.).

Each team was required to submit one board to Energy Challenge officials weeks ahead of time for a testing of materials used in the construction. They built duplicate snowboards that will be used in the actual competition, which includes more than racing.

"The race portion of the competition will account for only 20 percent of the final scoring necessary to win the Energy Challenge," emphasized John Horst, public affairs specialist for the DOE's Golden, Colo., field office.

Horst said overall scoring for the event is based on a variety of criteria, including written reports, gross weight, materials, composition, board volume, compressive strength, and novelty. Each team also must submit a 15-minute videotape highlighting development of its respective projects.

For more information, telephone Cliff George at (662) 325-7205 or e-mail Becky Smith at ras14@msstate.edu.

LOCAL EDITORS:

Names of team members' parents include (by hometown or residence)

BRANDON--Aaron Smith, son of Stephen and Linda Smith.

COLUMBIA--Warren English, son of Edward and Alice English.

ELK RIVER, Minn.--(see Winona)

HATTIESBURG--Mason Faggert, son of Walter and Ruth Faggert.

KOSCIUSKO--David Neaves, son of James and Pamela Neaves.

LOSTANT, Ill.--Benjamin Hartenbower, son of Milton and Catherine Hartenbower.

SALTILLO--Jenny Mask, daughter of Donald and Rejeana Mask.

STARKVILLE--David Layton, parental information not available.

VICKSBURG--Becky Smith, daughter of Terry and Susan Smith; Haley Parsons, daughter of Henry and Barbara Parsons; and Leslie Renfroe, daughter of Lester and Nancy Renfroe.

WINONA--Paul Allison, son of Ralph and Rose Allison of Elk River, Minn.