Competition

1. The Mars Ice
Challenge
(RASC-AL)
Tori Idem

2. About Me
• Senior in Mechanical
Engineering
• From Cookeville, TN
• Both parents ME
• Legacy SWE member
• Middle child

3. Finding out about competition
• Junior year
• Wanted leadership,
design, and
collaboration
experience
• Got email from NASA
RASC-AL division
• Had two friends who
were also interested

4. What is RASC-AL?
• Revolutionary Aerospace System Concepts - Academic
Linkage
• Host annual design competitions
• Pose challenges addressing NASA’s mid-term goals
• Previously only design proposal

5. What is the competition?
• University-level design and build challenge
• Build systems to extract water
• For use on a simulated Martian surface
• Must adhere to several limits
• Budget of $10,000 if accepted

7. Challenges
• UTK never competed before
• No institutional framework for team
• Established societies also do design
challenges
• Leadership has little experience

8. Forming a team

9. Forming a team

10. Competition
Competition Video

11. What could improve
• Explicitly stating the expectations of each
team member
• Having some way to hold team member
accountable for their actions
• Using methodical design process (Pugh)
• Routing money to the teams on time

12. Takeaways
• Learn who your team is
• If you see a need, address it
• Take the opportunities that come your way
• Don’t be afraid to fail