ORONO, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Middle and high schoolers from across the state were able to compete Friday in the Windstorm Challenge and Wind Blade Challenge engineering competitions.

The event was hosted by and took place at UMaine’s Advanced Structures & Composites Center.

Teams of students competed on two projects, one was to build a stable floating wind turbine. The other, to create the most energy efficient wind blade.

Students have been designing and building their projects over the past few months and on Friday they got to see whose designs were best.

“I think it’s really important because like air, energy and stuff that’s like the future and that’s what we’re gonna have to use eventually when the oil and everything runs out, and so I think this is really important in getting kids involved in it at this age” said Lindsay Wells, a junior at Orono High School.

“Gave us an opportunity to sort of be more professional, you know at King we get to do, we get to do a lot of things but I’ve never done something of this scale before,” said Lucy Kilbreth, an 8th-grade student at King Middle School in Portland.

Students also gave presentations about their projects earning points as well – the team with the most points from each competition gets a $20,000 scholarship to work in the laboratory.

The winners…

Windstorm Challenge 2016

1st Place: Falmouth High School A6

2nd Place: King Middle School B18

3rd Place: Caribou Middle School B2

Maine Composites Alliance’ 8th Annual Wind Blade Challenge 2016

1st Place: Bangor High School Team 1

2nd Place: Freeport High School

3rd Place: Lewiston High School Team 4

Copyright 2016 WCSH

Thursday, April 9, 10 a.m.-noon

Maine Advanced Technology and Engineering Center

Southern Maine Community College, 29 Sewall St., Brunswick

BRUNSWICK, Maine- The heart of business is technically capable employees. The business of creating technically capable employees starts here. Southern Maine community College staff and students are sharing their expertise in advanced material manufacturing with Maine high school students during a one day workshop in Brunswick.

In preparation for the 7th Annual Wind Blade Challenge, 5 area high school teams will gather at Southern Maine Community College’s state of the art composites facility for a unique hands-on learning opportunity this Thursday. The high school competitors bring wind blades of their own design and innovation and will join forces with SMCC students and faculty to transform a kit of raw, advanced materials into solid, functional wind blades.

The Maine Wind Blade Challenge has been incorporating hands on Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) education for high school students in a state-wide competition held at the University of Maine for each of the last six years. The Wind Blade Challenge provides an avenue to bring together Maine’s exceptional educational, alternative energy and composites manufacturing capabilities and expertise with students, who through this experience are exposed to the skills and knowledge required to become part of this vital and vibrant workforce.

Along with being an excellent educational opportunity and a chance to see the vocational application of composite manufacturing, Wind Blade Challenge provides a path to the future for Maine’s economy for students through the SMCC Composites Program, and local industry partnerships. This activity represents the first stage of capturing the imagination and motivation of talented, skilled, and motivated students on the road to becoming a vital part of the vibrant and growing composites and alternative energy sectors. The exposure to industry leading technical education allows students to experience first-hand the real and exciting careers available right here in their home state.

Southern Maine Community College’s Maine Advanced Technology and Engineering Center, which is also home to the Composites Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) in Brunswick, will be the site for the infusion portion of the wind blade competition. The SMCC composites program directly exposes their students to the hands-on education required by industry, with the program culminating in an industry partnered internship. Forward facing and in-demand skills and career opportunities abound for graduates of SMCC’s unique program. Students have the option to go into high paying careers, or to advance their education towards materials engineering degrees through a cooperative agreement with U-Mass Lowell.

The local competitors attend Freeport High School, Bath Regional Career and Technical Center, and Chewonki School in Wiscasset. The five teams from these area schools will compete against 40 other teams from around the state at the 7th Annual Wind Blade Challenge at the University of Maine in Orono on May 1nd. Led by dedicated teachers from their schools, teams must work together to design and manufacture a wind blade set, as well as show their work through a presentation. Academic and industry professionals will judge the winner based on both power generation and quality of presentation.

Thursday’s event is cohosted by SMCC’s MATEC, CERL and the Maine Composites Alliance.

The Maine Composites Alliance is an alliance of composite businesses in Maine who work together to recognize and promote Maine’s leadership in the international composite industry. We enhance the competitiveness of Maine’s existing composite industry and our members by providing opportunities for new commercial ventures, and by providing education and training for members and their employees. http://www.mainecompositesalliance.org

Wind Blade Challenge was created to inspire, motivate, engage, and introduce students to the world of STEM education, composites and alternative energy with the purpose of building a strong workforce in the composite and alternative energy industries. Students from past competitions are now working in the Maine composites, wind industry and/or continued their education in STEM fields. http://mainewindbladechallenge.com/

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Within a diverse array of innovation, Baxter Academy triumphs at the Wind Blade Challenge.

ORONO, Maine – The 6th annual Maine Wind Blade Challenge featured innovative approaches by middle and high school students that pushed the limits of wind blade designs. At the end of the day, Baxter Academy won the competition with a unique mechanical variable blade pitch design, Brunswick Region 10 Team 1 and Thornton Academy placed second and third out of 39 registered Teams.

The 2014 competition featured a number of other innovative approaches including an electric variable pitch system with an internal accelerometer developed by Freeport High School Students, spreadsheet tools created to compute best design sizes and specs, and teams using hub assemblies created with 3D printers.

The competition, held on May 2nd, was the culmination of a workforce development program that encourages exploration in innovative design, use of advanced materials, and renewable energy following STEM principles (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). The challenge demands the use of academic learning applied to hands on challenges requiring real world solutions. Organized by the Maine Composites Alliance (MCA) and the Maine Ocean and Wind Industry Initiative (MOWII), the program provides advanced material kits, and also opportunities to visit and work with local composite manufacturers and institutes of higher learning. The competition was also supported by the University of Maine College of Engineering and the Advanced Structures and Composites Center.

During the competition sets of blades designed by the teams are testing for electrical output in a competitive setting. The teams must also make a presentation to explain their design and engineering processes to a panel of judges. Final scores are based on a combination of the generation output and presentation scores.

The electrical output test measure the electricity generated at wind speeds of approximately 15 MPH. Test last 2 minutes. During the first 30 seconds of the test the blades operate without any load, the next 30 seconds a load of 20 ohms in introduced by turning on a set of small lights within a model house. Additional sets of lights are turned on every 30 seconds increasing the workloads the blades must respond to, until the 2 minute time limit expires. The accumulative energy output is calculated from the test.

All elements of the event were designed to inspire creativity and innovation. Even the model house with the lights are modeled on the home the home of the character featured in the Dr. Seuss book, the Lorax, which warns of the consequences of not caring for our natural environment. The trophies for the event were created from of a technological advanced commercial scale wind blade section designed by General dynamics, built by TPI composites, and tested at the U-Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center.

The winning blades by the Baxter team used a novel approach with a mechanical system to vary the pitch of the blades. As the speeds of the blades increased the centrifugal forces drove a system that reduced the blade angle of pitch which reduced drag and increased the blades output. The Baxter Team also developed their own spreadsheet to help calculate the most efficient design specs for their blade. “It was worth the time to crunch the number to be sure we had the design right, before we rushed into making things,” said Nick Landry of Baxter Academy.

The 2014 competition include a diverse group of students, including teams of all woman, all men, mixed gender, advanced college prep students, and technology arts students. As a indication of the diversity, the top three teams represented a newly established charter school, a vocational technical school, and traditional private/public academy. Final results can be seen on the web at www.mainewindbladechallenge.com.

“This is an important workforce development program that introduces students to careers in growing technical fields with a high demand for good paying jobs,” said Stephen Von Vogt of the Maine Composites Alliance. The opportunity to apply STEM principles to a real world challenge while working work with professional technicians creates unique career exploration opportunities for Maine youth.

Previous students from the competition have gone on to earn degrees at the University Of Maine College Of Engineering, Southern Maine Community College Composites Technician Program, Northern Maine Community College Wind Turbine Technician Program, and the Landing School Composite Boat Building Program. Past participants also now work professionally as engineers, composite technicians and wind turbine technicians in Maine.

The Maine Composites Alliance (MCA) is an alliance of composite businesses in Maine who work together to recognize and promote Maine’s leadership in the international composite industry. MCA aims to enhance the competitiveness of Maine’s existing composite industry by providing opportunities for new commercial ventures, and by providing education and training for members and their employees.

The Maine Ocean and Wind Industry Initiative (MOWII) represents companies’ expertise within the Maine ocean and wind energy supply chain, works proactively to promote the expertise of member companies, provides solutions to local, national, and international market participants, and provides industry and public educational opportunities.

The College of Engineering at the University of Maine (COE) is the sole institution in Maine to offer 11 engineering and engineering technology majors and full M.S. and Ph.D. programs. The College of Engineering is working for Maine to educate and train the next generation of engineers to meet the growing technological needs of our state, and to develop the innovations needed to power Maine’s economy.

The Advanced Structures and Composites Center is a state-of-the-art one-stop-shop for integrated composite materials and structural component development. Located at the University of Maine, it offers in-house capabilities for developing a composite product or structure from the conceptual stage through research, manufacturing of prototypes, comprehensive testing and evaluation, code approval and commercialization.

Wind Blade Challenge was created to inspire, motivate, engage, and introduce students to the world of STEM education, composites and alternative energy with the purpose of building a strong workforce in the composite and alternative energy industries. Students from past competitions are now working in the Maine composites, wind industry and/or continued their education in STEM fields. http://mainewindbladechallenge.com/  

May 9, 2013
From offshorewind.biz

The daylong events was held in UMaine’s New Balance Student Recreation Center.

Windstorm Challenge asks teams of middle and high school students to design and construct a floating platform for a scale model wind turbine, and deliver a business plan and sales pitch to a panel of expert judges. Teams are critiqued on the technical feasibility and aesthetic design of their platform, as well as the quality of their sales pitch. The Windstorm Challenge encourages an interdisciplinary approach to solving large problems.

Maine Wind Blade Challenge was developed by the Maine Composites Alliance, Maine Wind Industry Initiative and UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center to inspire students’ exploration of alternative energy and composites materials by participating in a hands-on application of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The event incorporates STEM guidelines in the classroom, and applied composites and energy education in the field. Students are matched with Maine composite businesses to use hands-on infusion techniques to build their blades.

The cooperating events had an award ceremony at the end of the day, presenting winning team members from each competition a paid internship at the UMaine Composites Center, an award valued at more than $20,000, contingent upon their enrollment at the University of Maine.

The DeepCwind Consortium’s mission is to establish the state of Maine as a national leader in deepwater offshore wind technology through a research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation-Partnerships for Innovation and others.

May 6, 2013
From Seacoastonline

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — The 11 Marshwood High School students attending the 2013 University of Maine Windstorm Challenge at the Orono campus Friday reported having a great time in their quest to build and test a model floating wind turbine platform, said Marshwood science teacher Sara Cathie.

“It was extremely engaging, exciting — it’s a really professional experience for them,” Cathie said. “They did great — it was a great learning experience for them and they’re charged up again for next year.”

The goal of the project was to create stable platforms that don’t bounce, she added. There is an accelerometer that measured the movement on the three axes.

Forty-five middle and high schools from Maine participate in the yearly competition that challenges students to design and construct a floating platform for a scale model wind turbine, and deliver a business plan and sales pitch to a panel of expert judges, Cathie said.

Teams are critiqued on the technical feasibility and aesthetic design of their platform and the quality of their presentation. It encourages an interdisciplinary approach to solving large problems.

Students spoke enthusiastically about the experience.

Freshman Charlie Honkonen said he liked being in the pool and seeing all the other people’s designs and getting ideas for next year.

“It really introduced me to the world of engineering for wind turbines and that whole environmental idea,” he said. “It was a big design process; we had to really go through a lot of tests, ideas, theories that didn’t work — some did. We went through a lot of building and rebuilding and testing and not working.”

“There were 45 teams competing and we actually did really well, much better than we expected, honestly,” said sophomore Griffin Simmons. “Our presentation was really solid and our preparation was a lot better than last year, and our windmill design did a lot better in the test in the pool than we expected it to do.

“Of all the platforms tested, ours was the third most stable as measured by the gyroscope or sensors,” he added. “I’m surprised and I’m really happy. For next year we’re going to recycle some key elements, probably the design concept and the principle it works on.”

Liam Williams, a spokesman for the other sophomore group, said it was a lot fun testing the platform in the pool. The design part was stressful because “we waited to the last minute to do it,” he said. “We designed quickly; we tossed out ideas, slowly worked up and finally came up with a final product and it worked well.”

Williams said he was pleased with their design because “our platform just looked more feasible than the other designs — our platform had a gyroscope in the middle.”

Cathie said there was no cost to attend the competition but she said she was thankful for a grant from the Marshwood Education Foundation that contributed funds for the supplies and transportation to the event.

This was the third annual Windstorm Challenge, which is part of a larger event that day that included the Annual Maine Composites Alliance Wind Blade Challenge.

The DeepCwind Consortium’s mission is to establish the state of Maine as a national leader in deepwater offshore wind technology through a research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation-Partnerships for Innovation and others. For information, visit www.windstormchallenge.com or www.mainewindbladechallenge.com.