Bowling Green, Ky. - For the third consecutive year, students in Western Kentucky University’s Mechanical Engineering Junior Design class took top honors in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers District C Student Design Competition.

The competition, held March 4 in Rolla, Mo., required teams to design and build a remotely controlled fishing pole casting and reeling device that would allow quadriplegics to catch a fish.

The WKU team of Brian Hellinger of Bowling Green and Nathan Plemons of Alvaton won the competition and advanced to the national competition in Chicago in November. WKU teams also finished second and third.

WKU won the conference’s participation award with seven teams and 22 students. Other schools in the regional competition included Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Rose-Hulman, Southern Illinois and Kentucky.

“This was a tremendous effort by all seven of the Junior Design teams at the competition,” said Kevin Schmaltz, Junior Design class co-instructor (along with Robert Choate). “WKU was easily the strongest school at the Design Competition. Building meaningful devices is an important skill that is expected of all ME students. But the enthusiastic participation of our students at a voluntary student competition is an indication of the quality students in the ME program.”

Members of the second-place team were Kyle Ketterman of Bowling Green, Justin Merritt of Franklin, Jimmy Ray Sandusky of Windsor and Justin Wallace of Lanesville, Ind.

Members of the third-place team were Ryan Farris of Marion, Ill., and Matthew Seibert of Evansville, Ind.

Other WKU students who attended the event or competed were Mary Elizabeth Baker of Nicholasville, David Brown of Franklin, Ethan Holloway of Olmstead, Josh Nash of Russellville, Joey Traughber of Franklin, Luis Villalpando of Mexico City, Mexico, Russell Wimsatt of Whitesville, Juan Figueroa of Lima, Peru, Adam Marshall of Frankfort, Adam Pape of Morgantown, Joshua Petrino of Kingston Springs, Tenn., Elizabeth Schmale of St. Libory, Ill., Juan Silva of Quito, Ecuador, and Adam Tabor of Bowling Green.

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For information, contact Engineering Department at (270) 745-2461.