Creativity Flies at UCI Display

Everybody, it seems, likes a flying saucer.

One of the crowd-pleasers at a free show Friday at UC Irvine was a student-built flying saucer that rose from the ground, ascended vertically, swooped around, then landed.

“It actually did fly and went about eight feet off the ground,” said Lisa Rehbaum, an administrative assistant at UCI’s department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, which sponsors the annual event.

Called “Senior Design Display Day,” the show featured devices designed and built by engineering seniors. As visitors, faculty and other students watched Friday morning, the students put their devices into motion at the UCI Engineering Gateway Plaza.

“It’s just neat to see the students working so long all year on these projects, and then to be present when they actually perform,” Rehbaum said. “When the flying saucer took off, everybody was clapping and pretty excited.”

She noted that other student-constructed devices in the display included “a hybrid electrical bicycle,” a model aircraft capable of lifting a 22-pound payload, and a small, off road-type vehicle powered by an 8-horsepower lawn mower engine.

Sandra Ortiz, a spokeswoman for UCI, said the projects on display represented “engineering applications from a variety of fields.” Some of the student devices someday might have commercial possibilities, she said.

“A conveyor system with digital image-sorting capability and an alignment jig for construction and truing of bicycle wheels are among the [student-built] projects of industrial interest,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz added that the student-built machines amounted to more more than just cute toys and crowd-pleasers. The intricate devices, she said, represent “ingenious solutions to perplexing real-life problems.”