Storm The Citadel has something for everyone. The annual STEM festival hosted on campus offers K-12 competitions in robotics, bottle rockets, and bridges, and a trebuchet competition with participants who range from K-12 to college students and company teams sponsored by local technology firms. Hosted by the college\u2019s STEM Center of Excellence, the annual February competition attracts hundreds of students, teachers, parents and spectators of all ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Dylan Wood, a mechanical engineering major from Akron, Indiana, who holds a four- year National Navy Scholarship, Storm The Citadel offered a unique opportunity to engage with elementary school students and to put his knowledge to the test. Wood was one of more than 15 members of Tau Beta Pi, the college\u2019s engineering honor society, who helped make this year\u2019s Storm The Citadel a success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get students ready for the competition, Wood created a YouTube video in which he demonstrated the basic steps of assembling the catapult kit provided to all participating school teams and offered helpful tips on how to improve performance. Catapults with an even platform, he told them, will lob their ammunition farther than those with an uneven platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter helping with the competition last year,\u201d said Wood, \u201cI really wanted to be part of it again this year because you get a chance to see the smaller children adapt. They try different weights and different ways of arranging the weights, and it\u2019s really interesting to see how they overcome challenges, like what they do if their catapult fires backward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wood himself is no stranger to working through challenges to improve a design. He and four of his fellow mechanical engineering classmates designed a fishing reel with a dynamic braking system. Traditional fishing reels use a static braking system that applies even pressure, while the reel Wood\u2019s team designed applies gradual pressure based on how fast the spool is spinning. The faster the spool spins, the harder the brake is applied, keeping tension in the fishing line and allowing for a better cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At graduation, Wood was named Second Honor Graduate for his stellar academic record. Now, his Gone Fishin’ sign will be flipped to Gone Flyin\u2019 as he heads to Pensacola to begin Naval aviation training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Storm The Citadel has something for everyone. The annual STEM festival hosted on campus offers K-12 competitions in robotics, bottle rockets, and bridges, and a trebuchet competition with participants who range from K-12 to college students and company teams sponsored by local technology firms. Hosted by the college\u2019s STEM Center of Excellence, the annual February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"yoast_head":"\n