The Keweenaw Research Center (KRC) revved up for the Society of Automotives Engineers (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge last week. Teams of students from 19 participating schools re-engineered stock snowmobiles to clean up their act by emitting less emissions and noise while boosting or maintaining performance. Michigan Tech and the Keweenaw Research Center have hosted the SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge for since 2003.
Teams re-engineered snowmobiles to be entered in two categories: Internal Combustion and Zero-Emissions.  The theme for the internal combustion division, where the Michigan Tech Snowmobile entered in 2009, is Fuel Economy using E2X fuel—which is a gasoline-ethanol blend.  The sleds in this division will be put through rigorous testing to explore each team’s ingenuity in designing a snowmobile that doesn’t just run on E2X, but excels with it.
The judges announced the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-Madison) as winners of both categories (Internal Combustion and Zero Emissions) for the 2010 Society of Automotives Engineers (SAE) Clean Snowmobile Challenge last Saturday.  This is the second year that UW-Madison has taken place at the top of both competitions.
Michigan Tech took second place in the internal combustion category for the second year in a row, and was also awarded the Land and Sea Award for Best Performance and the Altair Engineering Award for Design Simulation.
Clarkson University’s was awarded second place in the zero emissions category.  They were also awarded the CH2M HILL Polar Service Range Event Award and the Keweenaw Research Center Draw Bar Pull Award.Placing third in the internal combustion category was the University of Idaho.
They also earned the International Engineering and Manufacturing (Woody’s) Award for Best Acceleration, the Polaris Industries Award for Best Handling, and the DENSO Corporation Award for Best Ride.
Fourth place winner of the internal combustion category was the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Their diesel-powered snowmobile took the PCB Group Award for Quietest Snowmobile, the Caterpillar Corporation Award for Innovation, and the Aristo Catalysts Inc. Award for Most Improved Snowmobile.
Kettering University finished fifth in the internal combustion category. McGill University finished third within the zero emissions category.
The University of Minnesota-Duluth received the Hawk Technology Safety Award.
The A&E Inc. Tools and Ken Cook Publications Award for Serviceability was given to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
This year’s competition had a newcomer—North Dakota State University.
They received the Rookie of the Challenge Award.  The University of Wisconsin-Platteville team members were honored with the Bill Paddleford Founder’s Award for Most Sportsmanlike Conduct for the help they provided to North Dakota State’s team during its first year at the Challenge.
Local community members jumped in on the annual event that celebrates engineering progression in one of Upper Peninsula’s most popular pastimes.  Notably Coca-Cola of Hancock approached the Coke Foundation and secured a $10,000 donation for the 2010 challenge.
The warm weather affected March 16 run, but none of the events during the challenge were cancelled.  The endurance run that was originally destined for Copper Harbor to test fuel consumption was relocated to the KRC test course.  March 17 in-door event tested the emissions, and on March 19 he quietest running snowmobile with the Noise Event occurred.
All of the statistics in this article are from Tech Today article Madison Sweeps Clean Snowmobile Challenge, Tech Nabs a Silver.  The SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge is held by the Keweenaw Research Center, the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.
To see the results and pictures from this years challenge go to www.mtu.edu.

Sometimes I look back and I cannot believe that I am already on the edge of Spring Break during my sophomore year. Time flies extremely fast. It seems I am always looking forward to something whether it be an event happening over the weekend or a period of break during the school year. I wait. And I wait. And before I know it, that break is over and I am back in the mix with schoolwork and exams and the like. Why does time have to work in such a way that when we want to enjoy a specific moment, it is over before we know it? Yet when we are grinding through a period of time that is undesirable, it seems it will never end.
A good friend once explained to me that time is like a bar of soap. We squeeze it so hard to try and hold on to the good moments, but the harder we squeeze, the quicker they slip away from the palm of our hands. If we do not hold on long enough, the moment drags and is forgotten.
I think it’d be best if we do not talk about how fast Spring Break is going to fly by. Instead, we can discuss the contents of break and all it has to offer.
Last year as a freshman, it was always hard to separate from my hall, even if it was for a week. We were lucky enough to share such a relationship with each other. Not all halls have this advantage. Spring Break was typical last year. I rode home with a couple friends and spent the week at home. I guess I was not comfortable enough with anyone to spend break with them yet. I always have this weird voice in the back of mind, usually the voice of my mother, scolding me for choosing to spend break with someone else other than my family.
Spring Break in high school was never as adventurous though. I attended two high schools; I spent three years in one and a year and a half in the other. My first high school was part of a hick town in Missouri where Spring Break typically entailed decent weather and sunshine. No one went anywhere except the two rich kids who flew to Mexico, Jamaica or Los Angeles. In my second high school, everyone went everywhere. Granted, the majority of our students drove Hummers and new Mustangs to school, you know the type.
I liked Spring Break, even in high school. I used to own a LeBaron convertible in high school, my old white beater with a leaky roof and squeaky brakes. There is nothing like flying down main street with the top down and the cool, Spring breeze tangling your hair—for those of you who have hair and can relate. Spring comes at the right time in Southern Wisconsin. By Spring Break, leaves are budding on the trees and the sun makes a regular appearance. The snow cowers away like a frightened vampire avoiding dawn and shrinks into the ground, feeding the imminent green grass. One can truly feel the world awakening from a long sleep with sprouting flowers and vibrantly vocal birds.
Thinking of Spring Break makes me miss summer. But as I discussed earlier, before I know it, the school year will be ending and I would have finished my last exam and then summer is here. It happens. Too fast.
My senior year of high school over Spring Break, I went to a field away from the city and watched the stars till dawn, pointing out shooting stars and listening to the coyotes howl in the distance. In the morning, we saw a family of deer wander into the meadow for an early bite to eat. Eventually, watching them made me hungry for breakfast. I like to do activities such as this to make every moment of my life memorable.
As you depart on your adventurous trip towards Spring Break, whatever destination you have planned, I hope you make memories. Do something crazy.
Even if you aren’t going anywhere for Spring Break and are just going home, it’s okay. That is exactly what I am doing. I am staying in areas non-tropical and in the Midwest. You’d be surprised at how many students don’t actually go away anywhere for Spring Break. I mean, think about it. We’re college students signing over our lives to debt. But you can still go crazy.

Dear Huskies,

Hi guys! How’s your first two weeks of class? Doing well? To tell you the truth, I have had a tough week this week. All the homework is due this week and I’m taking the most difficult classes in sophomore year. Also, I’m busy with finishing both of my enterprise and SAE-Aero projects. Meantime, my dear Mac’s keyboard and mouse pad are no longer functional… I was just told it needs 500 dollars to fix it. What a week!
Well, if you have time to complain about your life, why don’t you make it better? In the previous articles, I talked about lots of cultural difference between our two countries. However, I never spent any time to think about how I fit myself into this new culture and environment. I think today is the time.
Before I got on the plane to America, I didn’t know how to take care of myself. My parents got everything for me. As I said before, I was not allowed to go into the kitchen and laundry room. Even now, all I know how to do is to call my mom and ask her to send them to me. She spent 50 dollars in shipping fees to just send me some underwear. Sometimes when I wear those clothes my mom sent to me, my American friends would say: “Miles, you look like an Asian.” I am an Asian, always. Although I have been here almost two years, I still can’t get used to it. I may miss my parents and girlfriend back home and spend hours and hours talking with them on phone. I may have some weird behaviors and freak my friends out.
Food, weather, language and everything are only some aspects of culture differences. The culture I introduce to you may give you a shock. However, I’m also in shock of American culture. On some opinions, I can never, never agree with you guys. Sometimes when we talk about those sensitive topics, I just feel so offensive. I’m in the engineering ethics class now and I think things I learned from that can explain something.
Different cultures and societies have their own ethics to judge whether things are right or wrong. Obviously, different cultures decide on ethics differently, and even conflict with each other. Generally, it might not cause big problems. But in some particular cases it does bring troubles to me. I’m not sure whether everyone has such experiences like me, but it’s very hard to deal with. Especially when the majority has the same ethics but I don’t.
Sorry guys, this week’s story may be too heavy and serious. I think the pressure from school and life has some effect on me. I believe I can handle all the stuff around me and bring you an interesting and funny story next week, I promise.

Lode Sports rolls on with the Club Sports feature this year, remember each week we will highlight a different club sport team in effort to expand the awareness of some of the great sports we have here at Michigan Tech on the club level. This week we highlight the Rowing Club of Michigan Tech.
The Rowing Club competed in four regattas this fall, two of which were in Minneapolis, one in Grand Rapids and the Heavy Metal series against Northern Michigan. The team performed well in each regatta. The team is a relatively small program and held its own against the much larger programs from downstate like Grand Valley, Michigan State and Michigan. Fortunately the team was able to blow Northern Michigan out of the water in their Heavy Metal series, maintaining dominance of the U.P.
The fall season is now completed and this year’s team is considered a very successful team and had a good season. The team has generated a lot of new interest and higher numbers but still could use more members. That being said the team is happy with the progress being made as the club continues to build. The club is now headed into off-season workouts and would like to participate in a spring sprint race but with the lack of good spring weather in the Keweenaw it is difficult to do.
When asked about what would be a dream come true for the Rowing Club, Rebecca Boeve shared interesting information: “A dream come true for the rowing team is a boat house. We are drawn into the university plan right now with there new waterfront renovation but we will need a lot more support than that. A boat house is expensive. We are starting our own capital campaign; a boat house would provide a lot more opportunities for our team”.
Any interested in more information and checking out what the Rowing Club is about is welcome to contact any member of the club, check out the website (rowing.students.mtu.edu) or contact Rebecca Boeve at raboeve@mtu.edu.

Heading into Saturday’s game with a 1-5 record, the Huskies have found just about every way to lose this year: losing by a combined eight points in the first two games, running into a Northern Michigan team that may be the GLIAC surprise of the year, facing the then-No. 1 Grand Valley State Lakers, falling in a snowy weather game while battling countless injuries and some debatable penalties. This Saturday, they discovered a new way: turning the ball over. Michigan Tech fell to Indianapolis 38-20, as the Greyhounds scored 20 points off of five Huskies turnovers.

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Mother Nature gave us a sneak preview of summer this past Friday during Spring Fling. With temperatures reaching into the 70s, students were able to get out and enjoy all that campus and the surrounding area has to offer – while broomball and snow statues are the highlight of nearly half a year, campus was buzzing with the unseasonably-warm weather.

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Last year’s spring football game ended with a 10-9 victory for the Black team, and this year’s game shared similar drama, as the Black team drove 82 yards on its final possession to secure the 13-12 victory in front of the hundreds of fans who braved the chilly spring weather at Sherman Field on Saturday.

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As the snow melts, I’ve been noticing strange discolorations on the ground. Has dyed Jell-O become outlawed? So, I gather Styrofoam is a whole mess better. The letters left from the Winter Carnival snow statues are now littering our campus. Ideally, those who built the statues, the groups responsible for making the lettering, should take it into their hands to pick up their own lettering. And the ones who decided it was a fantastic idea to use Styrofoam should be given a lesson or two about the harm it does to the environment. It’s bad enough that Styrofoam is utilized for everyday use. There are a slew of other colorful, disgusting patches of earth around campus as a result of negligence. Why don’t we brainstorm some alternatives right now for Winter Carnival letters. Well, since it is balls cold during Winter Carnival, ice and snow could be exploited… as it is used for everything else on the statue.

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The unavoidable has finally happened we have snow. Though it is melting fast this is only the beginning of what will probably be a long winter. The Farmers Almanac predicts we are going into a “frigid, wet, wild, snowy” season.

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