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2003 International Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition
Student Class Winning Entries
So many innovative ideas come from students and we want to recognize you! Students have their own category in which to compete. Entries in the Student Category will be eligible for First Place, Second Place, and Third Place awards. The Student Category is open for submissions from students studying design and may encompass any of the five categories. For students only, a new Hydro Sustainable Design Award will be presented to the entry that best addresses societal and/or environmental concerns, in addition to meeting the four basic ET Foundation Design Competition criteria. See award information for more details. Think outside the box and come up with totally new uses!
2003 Student Design Competition
The 2003 International Aluminum Extrusion Student Design Competition was held in March and yielded 37 entries from five different schools. The ET Foundation presented three awards, described below. Each winning entry earned a cash prize and a complimentary registration to ET '04.
First Place
Earning a prize of $3,000, was the team Alexander Bandar, Heather Browne,
Mario Epler, and Frank Gift, Jr., graduate students in Materials Science
and Engineering at Lehigh University, for their design of an extruded
aluminum wire harness for residential and commercial use. The wire
harness "is used to organize, guide, and protect wiring," the
students explained in their entry. The harness also aids in "preventing
wires from being excessively deformed when stapled to wood, as is normal
practice" in residential construction.
"The product is low in cost, environmentally stable, and easy to produce. Extrusion provides high dimensional tolerances in complex shapes, which is integral to this design," explained the students. "No special tools or skills are required to incorporate it into design or construction. It can be fastened to wood using normal wood screws, can be incorporated into metal sheet using metal screws or nuts and bolts, or fastened to concrete or cinder block structures using masonry screws or nails."
The students designed the harness to accommodate an array of hole sizes and shapes for electrical, phone, coaxial, and data/Ethernet cables.
Second Place
Earning a prize of $2,000 was Derrick del Rosario, a junior majoring
in Industrial Design at Purdue University in St. John, Indiana. Derrick
designed fold down aluminum seating in answer to a lack of comfortable
seating in building hallways on his college campus. The aluminum fold
down seating provides unobtrusive, practical, functional, ergonomically
correct seating designed to attach to walls along hallways or anywhere
there is a need to maximize space. The seats fold down and out of the
way when not in use.
"Waiting areas equipped with seating do exist, however they are few in number, not sufficiently distributed, and must be part of the original floor plan and building design for space economy," explained Derrick in his entry. "In present designs, the building's structure must be tailored for a seating area, often a large reserved area." His fold down seating design would eliminate a need for a dedicated seating area. In addition, he explained that extruded aluminum offered an economic consistent product that is non-corrosive and lightweight with a smooth finish.
Third Place
Earning a prize of $1,000, was Jeff Becker from the University of Bridgeport
in Connecticut for his design of hurricane trim, which is extruded
aluminum window trim on the outside of a building designed with a half-inch
groove to accommodate a sheet of plywood. The trim would offer a simple
and quick way of boarding up windows in the event of an impending hurricane. "Simply
remove one side of the trim and slide in the plywood sheet, then replace
the side of trim, firmly screwing back in place," Jeff explained.
In his competition entry, Jeff explained the logistics of product
delivery. "Hurricane trim would leave the factory as 25-foot long
extrusions and ship right to construction sites. The extrusion would
then be cut to size, depending on the application. Hardware would consist
of screws and rubber plugs to fill the prefabricated screw holes."
The ET Foundation will hold a Student Design Competition yearly to allow more students from a greater variety of schools to participate. The Professional Design Competition will take place every other year. For more information, contact the ET Foundation.