HOUGHTON – It’s

hot in the desert, where many American military men and women serve. By

designing a cooling apparatus to wear in such climates, one of Michigan

Technological University’s Mechanical Engineering Senior Design teams may help

countless suffering soldiers.

Their design

won them first place in the Air Force Research Lab University Design

Challenge.

The Michigan

Tech team competed with 15 other universities and three military service

academies. As the top-ranked team, they brought home a traveling

trophy – theirs to keep until next year’s competition – and the satisfaction of

knowing that their work may someday help soldiers serving in difficult

circumstances overseas.

Student team

members include Mikhail Alexander, Jessica Buck, Joshua Kizer, Sean Mackey,

Sophia Rizzo, John Schuman and Nicholas Sill. Faculty advisors to the

team are Jaclyn Johnson, a lecturer in ME-EM and Kevin Johnson, a ME-EM

research engineer and scientist.

The heat

stress prevention kit they developed includes a small fan that blows air

through a soldier’s gear, using separation pads under their armor to help the

air circulate and force evaporation to cool them more efficiently.

Team member

John Schuman has an insider’s appreciation for the project. He served for

four years as an infantryman in the US Marine Corps, including a deployment to Iraq.

“I had

experienced combat situations in extremely hot conditions,” Schuman says. “The

challenge was how to make a device that could actually keep someone cool in one

of the hottest regions of the world, but be small and light enough that it

could easily integrated into the operator’s current combat equipment.

These troops already are carrying 90-130 pounds of equipment, so it was

crucial to keep the size and weight down.”

The device

the team came up with uses current battle gear and the body’s natural cooling

mechanism, enhancing each to help cool the person. “It’s something I wish I’d

had while I was overseas,” says Schuman. “It is one less thing a soldier,

sailor, airman or Marine has to worry about while on a combat patrol.”

Rizzo, an

AFROTC cadet, says she was passionate about the project from the

beginning. “The product we developed has a direct impact on battlefield

airmen, a highly trained group of airmen who put their duty above all else when

accomplishing a mission,” she explained. “The majority of these troops are

currently deployed in hot, arid and humid environments. Along with the

environmental conditions, they are required to execute high-intensity, 24/7 job

functions, carrying hundreds of pounds of equipment and are usually responsible

for not only their own lives, but the lives of civilians, other airmen and even

the enemy.

“Although I

will be receiving my commission as an aircraft maintenance officer, I was

greatly humbled and honored to be able to use my degree to help my wingmen for this

challenge,” Rizzo said. “Whether the AFRL chooses to prototype

our design or simply uses the data and calculations to formulate their own, my

team and my university has helped these airmen combat heat-related issues and

continue in their essential missions.”

“We are in

good company with the other schools in the challenge,” which included the Air

Force, Army and Naval Academies, Purdue, Ohio State, Colorado State,

Johns Hopkins, Auburn and other familiar names, said Bill Endres, Senior

Capstone Design Program director and associate professor of mechanical engineering-engineering

mechanics. “We are in company that is hard to describe in words when looking at

those amazing men who serve in the battlefield, as well as the civilian

servants who support the warfighters with dedication and passion.”