Student Design Teams
UA's highly regarded student design teams allow students at all levels to apply classroom theory to a major design project. Our design teams consistently rank highly in national and international competitions and are open to students in any major. No applications are needed.
Akronauts Rocket Design Team
The Akronauts Rocket Design Team gives UA students the opportunity to become a real rocket scientist by working on cutting-edge aerospace projects. Team members are responsible for every component that is a part of the launch vehicle, including the airframe, rocket engine, and electronics.
Contact: uakronauts@gmail.com
WKYC Channel 3: Akron Akronauts rocket team gets closer to a space shot
ASCE-Concrete Canoe Design Team
The UA Concrete Canoe Design Team participates in a national competition where top engineering schools from across the country build and race canoes made out of concrete. Team members learn the aspects of the construction experience, including management skills, concrete mix design, artistic ability, canoe paddling, graphic design and technical writing.
Contact: akronconcretecanoe@gmail.com
ASCE-Steel Bridge Design Team
The Steel Bridge Design Team gives students the opportunity to be involved in the whole process of bridge design. The team regularly competes in the Student Steel Bridge Competition, where engineering students conceptualize and design through fabrication, erection and testing—culminating in a steel structure that meets client specifications and optimizes performance and economy. Categories of the competition are display, construction speed, lightness, stiffness, construction economy and structural efficiency.
Contact: ua.steelbridge@gmail.com
Chem-E Car Design Team
The Chem-E Car Design Team provides students with the opportunity to apply their engineering and chemistry knowledge to a challenging and exciting project. Throughout the school year, the team constructs a small car that must be powered and stopped completely by chemicals. In the spring, the team competes in the regional competition, where the car must travel as close as possible to a distance specified on the day of the competition. The ultimate goal is to qualify for nationals.
Contact: uakronchemecar@gmail.com
Geo-Challenge Design Team
The Geo-Challenge Design Team's main focus is to design a miniature mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall to use in a national Geo-Wall competition against top engineering schools around the country. The goal of the competition is to assemble your team's MSE wall with the lightest amount of reinforcement within a designated time frame. Constructing the MSE wall consists of cutting out reinforcement, compacting the soil, and adding a surcharge and lateral load. Other competitions include Geo-Prediction, Geo-Poster, Geo-Video, and Geo-Shirt. This team gives students the opportunity to attend the largest geotechnical engineering conference in the nation, learn more about geotechnical design, and make meaningful connections with students and engineering professionals.
Contact: ua.geochallenge@gmail.com
Medical Device Design Team
The Medical Device Design Team is a student-led organization dedicated to engineering innovative solutions and devices to meet unmet clinical needs in the medical industry. Members will learn the ins and outs of the medical device design process while gaining real-world experience in the medical field. Our goal is to participate and achieve national recognition in undergraduate medical device design competitions.
Contact: medicaldevicedesignteam@outlook.com
NASA Mining Robotics Team
The goals of the award-winning UA NASA Mining Robotics Team are to construct a reliable robot capable of participating in the NASA Robotic Mining Competition, while also reinforcing knowledge learned in the classroom and strengthening abilities used in the workplace. The NASA Robotic Mining Competition is an international tournament held annually at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The goal of the competition is to construct a robot that is able to collect sand on a simulated lunarscape.
Contact: uanasarobotics@1870.uakron.edu
Phalanx Robotics Design Team
Established in 2019, Phalanx RoboticsDesign Team is a student-led combat robotics design team. We design and fabricate robots to fight locally and nationwide. Team members learn how to create their own ‘bots from conceptualization and design to manufacturing and assembly. The sport has a welcoming and inclusive community of brilliant makers and creators around the world, and Phalanx Robotics follows in their footsteps.
Contact: phalanxroboticsua@gmail.com
Zips Aero Design Team
The Zips Aero Design Team creates an environment where developing engineers can learn valuable skills through the design, management, and construction of small-scale remote-controlled aircraft. Team members participate in the entire engineering process from design, purchasing, building to travelling to our annual competition in Tucson, AZ or Wichita, KS. Zips Aero Design is one of the competitive teams at UA and competes in the Design Build Fly (DBF) competition held by AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) against national and international teams.
Contact: akronaerodesign@gmail.com
Zips Racing - Baja Design Team
The Zips Baja Design Team designs, fabricates, and tests mini off-road Baja vehicles to compete against other colleges across the country. The goal is to build a Baja car that can survive the toughest of road terrain. Students must function as a team to not only design, build, test, promote, and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, but also to generate financial support for their project and manage their educational priorities.
Contact: zipsbaja@uakron.edu
Zips Racing - Formula Combustion Design Team
The Formula Combustion Design Team provides students with an opportunity to participate in projects with real-world applications. Students are challenged to incorporate classroom knowledge into effective design related to the automotive industry. The competition concept is that a fictitious manufacturing company has contracted a group of engineers to manufacture a prototype formula-style race car to be evaluated for production. The vehicle must have high performance in acceleration, braking and handling. The car must also be aesthetically pleasing, comfortable and easy to maintain. With the same considerations as any engineering business, the students must also evaluate cost, manufacturing capabilities and reliability.
Contact: zipsracingformula@gmail.com
Zips Racing website Zips Racing Instagram See how Zips Racing celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Zips Racing - Formula Electric Design Team
The Formula Electric Design Team creates an environment for students similar to industry work. Students must manufacture a prototype electric race car to be evaluated for production. The vehicle must have high performance in terms of acceleration, braking, and handling capabilities. The car must also be aesthetically pleasing, comfortable, and easy to maintain. With the same considerations as any engineering business, the students must also evaluate cost, manufacturing capabilities, and reliability of the race car.
Contact: evracing@uakron.edu