Rhode Island engineers win national FAA competition

Mechanical engineering students from the University of Rhode Island recently earned first place at the University Design Competition for Addressing Airport Needs, a national contest that the Federal Aviation Administration sponsors.

Laura Coverse, Gilbert Resto and Cody McMillian modified a tool that URI engineering students first created and won the contest with two years ago. The tool prevents plane wingtips from crashing with other aircrafts that are towed along the ground.

“The design was reviewed by a panel of experts from the FAA, industry and academia,’’ Lawrence Goldstein, senior program officer of the Transportation Research Board, said. “The review panel cited the team’s good design process that looked at a lot of ideas and tested them. There were good interactions with aircraft manufacturers and airport operators. The team also did an excellent job building on a winning design concept previously submitted by URI.’’

The winning students recently graduated from the university with their mechanical engineering degrees.

“This is an extremely challenging competition with the best universities in the United States participating,’’ URI engineering professor Bahram Nassersharif said. “My students on this design team worked very hard and came up with a winning design proposal. I am very proud of them. This is our third consecutive first-place win at this annual competition. I think this speaks to the high caliber of our students, as well as the excellent mechanical engineering program at URI.”