Crafton Hills College Takes 1st Place in 2014 Wind Turbine Competition

For the past few months, Crafton Hills College (CHC) engineering instructor Corey Hardin has mentored four CHC students as they worked on their entry for the annual Wind Turbine Competition sponsored by UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering. In the competition, which was held on Saturday, March 1, community college student teams apply their knowledge of mathematics and engineering to design wind turbines. This year, the CHC team, in its first appearance, won first place in the competition, beating out such strong repeat contenders as RCC, Moreno Valley, and Mt. San Jacinto. The members of the CHC team, affectionately known as ACME Engineering, are Franklin Pandoy, Sean Mabey, Wes Stevens, and Robbie Tablang. A panel of UCR engineering students judged the community college teams on their presentations, the creativity of their wind turbine designs, and the amount of power generated by the turbine. Seven teams competed, and the following teams placed in the top three: 1st place: “ACME Engineering” (from Crafton Hills College) 2nd place: “Junkyard Dawgs” (from Riverside Community College 3rd place: “Squirrel Cage” (from Norco College)