Goal 10: NMX Prize

Goal 10: Win a Competition

Ever since I was in charge of NMT's ASME chapter, I've kept ties, and eyes, on the local and state level chapters. I was pretty excited when I saw that there was going to be a design competition at the state level, entrants were to be early career engineers and students. Well I just so happen to be a student, and I will always take an excuse to tackle a design challenge.

So I give my design partner, Austin Silva, a call, and we have a team. The dinner to announce the specifications of the design is full. This is a terrible start, because it means we have to get an e-mail with the specifications. As if I could accept such savagery. I let the coordinator, James McIntyre, know that I would like to stand for the dinner, and he allowed it.

I was busy doing venial things like taking a shower and brushing my hair after work, so I was fortunate to arrive just after the meet and greet portion of the night, meaning every person I saw was a stranger. I walked into the room that had been reserved at Chama Brewing Co., in Albuquerque, and many of those who HAD registered for the dinner made sure to turn and look at me so that I knew it was strange for me to be standing in the back. I said hello to the people in the chairs closest to me (about 2 feet away), and acted like I stand-crash fancy dinners all the time. The waitresses wanted to make sure that absolutely everyone in the room knew that I was standing back there, so they repeatedly asked if I was doing ok, or if I wanted to order anything.

"A chair? No thank you, I'd rather this situation was as uncomfortable as possible."

The Engineers Without Borders' Executive Director gave a presentation while the aroma of delicious filled the air, followed by James' announcement of the NMX Prize Specifications:

•The NMX prize is a team competition to design in extensive detail (on paper) a self-contained, Multi-Energy Source (MES) that serves as a life-saving device for people living in coastal areas following an earthquake, hurricane, tsunami, or similar disaster. Requirements are as follows:

•Maximum dimensional envelope: 1.2-m cube

•Maximum mass: 45 kg (including the mass of any stored fuels)

•The MES must be waterproof to 1 m, buoyant, with lift points and handles and/or wheels for easy transport.

•The MES must be fully functional after ten years of storage (-10°C to +45°C, average R. H. 50%)

•The MES must provide the following, operating continuously for ten days (functions need not run simultaneously):

•A heat source configured for cooking and space heating that outputs approximately 1MJ to boil 3 L of water three times per day; and approximately 1.8 MJ to raise the temperature from 2°C (dry bulb) and 30% R. H. to 20°C (dry bulb), 10% R. H. in a 76.5 m3 living space for 12 hours per day.

•Light: 500 lumens for 12 hours per day.

•24 L of potable water per day. Up to 9L may be produced by boiling standing fresh water from the surroundings. The remainder must be synthesized by desalination of sea water.

•6 kWh per day of electrical power with appropriate outlets for charging cell phones and lap tops.

•A manually-activated Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) with GPS capability operating in continuous digital mode at 406 MHz.

•The MES must be equipped to deploy a water-resistant wind break that acts as a minimal shelter for up to four people.

•The MES can use any combination of power sources and/or fuels that can provide the energy necessary for ten days of continuous operation. Radioactive sources are not permitted.

That's right, BUOYANT! I had to resist the urge to vomit.

His was the last presentation, and afterwards everyone was just sitting there, finishing their dinner...I guess that's all for me then. I slithered out the back the same way I came in.

So it was time to do what Austin and I do best: Go out to coffee shops and casually design. We got together about three times over the course of the one month time limit. We came up with our ideas, explored them, tried them out, and scrapped a lot of them.

We had all the aspects designed, but we had to do one final thing by the end of it: gather it up and put it in a powerpoint. An old friend from UMass, Martin Lynch, came to visit New Mexico the week just before the deadline. It was nice having him around because I didn't do any work on the project. Austin and I tried to pull the whole thing together the night before without success. I flew out to Michigan the next day, and our entry wasn't good enough, so Austin didn't submit it...

I was bummed...

But, what providence! An extension on the deadline? Yes! We are informed at 3 PM a few days later, that the deadline has been extended to 7 PM the same night! More than anything, it confirmed to me that they'd rather have our submission than care that it was late. I throw the presentation together, make a few touch-ups, and have my roommate, Adam Anderson, use his AutoCAD expertise to throw together a model for us. A few hours later we have a submission, and I submit it by e-mail (four hours after the extended deadline). This is what the render looked like of the assembled unit.

Three days later is the announcement of the winners at the Society of Professional Engineers' Luncheon. We are pleasantly greeted by everyone there, apparently the whole day was a conference type event. I met many of the people who spotted me in the back of the room at the announcement dinner. They greeted me with a smile, and it was good to know that I was getting rep as "that guy that stood in the back."

We sat down with the other finalist team, and we found out that it was between us and these two dudes, one a UNM graduate student, the other a Sandian. I felt very confident as I read James' mannerisms while talking to us. The first thing he said was,

"Really enjoyed your design."

"Oh great! Thanks."

I was then overly attentive to his actions as he described what the winners should do.

"When the grand prize winners are announced..."

(he motions at us, and is looking at the other team)

"...whoever does win. You will then get up and go to the podium."

(switching his eye contact to me)

"Then the runner up team will come to me afterward to claim their trophies and prize money."

Was that three strikes? It was definitely two:

1. Motioning to us when he says 'the winners,' then realizing what he did, and making a specific comment about how we didn't necessarily win.

2. Looking at the team that he isn't talking about, in regards to what winners and runners up should do. It wouldn't have been a strike if he switched his eye contact multiple times, but just once when he changes teams...not so subtle (not blatant, but not subtle)

The third, which was actually the first, was questionable:

3. "I really enjoyed your design." Very enthusiastic, very pleased to meet us. This could have been a strike against us, "Sorry you didn't win, I really enjoyed your design though."

So the jury was still out. Everyone was pretty talkative and curious about the projects until one of the judges brought our presentations printed out. The other team had some serious technical designs worked out with their fuel-cell technology. Circuitry diagrams, and the like, I felt most of my confidence slide off of the table. After everyone took a look at those, they mostly quieted up, although that might have been because we started eating.

James goes up on stage to announce the winner, and the drum roll starts...

"The winners are Austi..." THAT'S US, HOLY GOD WE WON!

I think he may have mis-pronounced BOTH of our names, but that didn't matter because I had forgotten what to do beyond standing up. Austin directed me to the stage, and I said 'Thank you' forty-five times or so before I was handed a heavy hexagon, and two $3,000 checks. We sat back down, the folks from New Mexico Tech who didn't even know that we were so awesome came over to congratulate us. I ate my lemon meringue pie.

Austin and I then took pictures with anyone and everyone who wanted to be pictured with grand prize winners. We took a victory lap, collected some business cards, and talked about how surprised we were, and why we won. Although the other team had really surprisingly in-depth designs of their hydrogen cell, it was complex, and overweight. We focused on the simplicity, and our design was very low-tech (which is ironic because they specifically mentioned that they wanted something high-tech), and conserved much of the energy it used. We met all specifications, at least the intention of the specifications.

Later, Austin and I will be putting together a polished presentation, and possibly even a prototype. We are now in contact with Technology Ventures Corporation, who specializes in hi-tech startups, and we are going to be invited to give a presentation at NMT. This was a good way to start my design triathalon, next up is the Genessee Towers Re-Vitalization, followed by ImagiNations 2011.

Status: So high.