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TMU's student-built rover with (left to right) Blake Power, Kevan Ross, Dr. Joey Kim (engineering chair), Prof. Dan Dubei, and Rachel Whidden, in the University's new engineering lab. Photo by Tim Canham.

This year, three engineering students at The ����aa���� — Kevan Ross, Blake Power, and Rachel Whidden — successfully built a rover with the assistance of one of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) programs for their senior capstone class.

The Open Source Rover (OSR) program was created by JPL as a resource for aspiring engineers. It provides hands-on experience with mechanical engineering, robotics, and computer programming by building a Mars rover replica. Because the program is open source, all the information regarding materials and instructions is available for public use.

“It was very challenging, but we learned a lot,” says Kevan Ross, a senior studying mechanical engineering. “This project was extremely helpful for my future career, specifically for practicing problem solving skills, how to reach out to people, how to research, and how to figure things out on your own.”

Although the students felt prepared for the task, the project did not always go as planned. They depended on help from those at JPL for advice through several unexpected challenges. In the final weeks of the spring semester, the crew spent multiple long Saturdays working through these problems.

Dan Dubei, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, met with each student every week to assess their project and determine next tasks. He says he was incredibly proud of how they tackled the work and its challenges.

“They did well. This is engineering, to be able to solve problems and troubleshoot when things do not work out.”

The last step of the process was a live demonstration of the rover’s capabilities. The presentation turned out to be a huge accomplishment. Those who attended wouldn’t have known the crew stayed up until midnight the night before actually finishing the rover.

“I invited several people, but I was surprised,” Dubei says. “The attendance was much higher than expected. That was a big success for us, especially because the project was in a very short amount of time, but it was executed and finalized well.”

Ross was also shocked, thinking only a couple of students and professors would come. He said he was overwhelmed with the support of roughly 30 attendees, including two JPL employees: engineers Lan Dang and Tim Canham.

This upcoming spring, Ross and his fellow students will be the first graduating class from the mechanical engineering department at TMU.

Says Dubei, “Now that the rover is ready and functional, our idea is to continue with the project in the second phase. For instance, we plan on installing an arm with a camera and then sending it onto campus. We should be able to control it from a computer. Like a rover on Mars, we will be able to see all the movements and to replicate what would, for example, happen on Mars.”

If you are interested in learning more about mechanical engineering at TMU, see here.