Victoria Holmes studies mechanical engineering at Cedarville College

CEDARVILLE — Cedarville University student Victoria Holmes, of Coal Grove, will joins a team of fellow senior mechanical engineering majors to design, build and fly a remote control airplane capable of transporting supplies to “colonists” at automotive engineers competition in March.

The Society of Automotive Engineers International Aero Design East Competition in Fort Worth, Texas will be March 8-10. Countries from around the world send their best to compete, and Cedarville University has repeatedly placed in the top five.

Last March, Cedarville earned the best ranking in school history with fourth place overall, second place in presentation and third place in drop accuracy.
Georgia Tech University won first place, followed by Pontifical Catholic University (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil) and the University of Cincinnati, who beat Cedarville by just two points. The University of Michigan placed fifth.

Cedarville is primed to place in the top three for this upcoming competition.

The competition is divided into three divisions: micro class, regular and advanced. 2019 will be the fourth year Cedarville participates in the advanced class of the competition. In order to win the competition, the team must score well in their written report, presentation and their actual flying.

The advanced category has become much more difficult for 2019 because students must now design an RC plane capable of releasing gliders from 50-100 feet in the air with “colonists” (ping pong balls) to land on the target (which represents Mars). The plane must also deliver “habitats” (Nerf footballs) and water bottles to these “colonists.” In the 2018 competition, the airplane only had to drop a weight on the target.

The team that successfully drops the most colonists, Nerf footballs and water bottles (without them breaking) wins the competition, because this colony would “survive” for the longest amount of time.