Michelin Tire Retread Plant Tour - RESCHEDULED!

The Michelin Tour that was scheduled in October has been rescheduled for Wednesday, November 4th at 10:00 AM. There are still spaces available for those of you who are interested. Please email coleyb 2 at asme dot org if you want to attend. There are still a limited number of spaces available, and they will be filled at a first-come first-served basis. Directions will be sent to those who sign-up.

Hope to see you there!

BLAZER BEST COMPETITION SEEKS VOLUNTEERS

HIGH OCTANE: UAB ENGINEERING SCHOOL’S

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Engineering is seeking volunteers for a range of tasks for its second annual Blazer BEST robotics competition set for 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, in Bartow Arena. The 2009 High Octane contest will pit middle- and high-school student teams from Central Alabama and their built-from-scratch robots against one another in a one-day competition.

Blazer BEST, the local contest hosted at UAB in conjunction with the national BEST Robotics competition, is a non-profit endeavor, providing free materials for teams to develop and build competition robots in the six weeks preceding the contest. Paul George, the UAB event’s coordinator and development director for the School of Engineering, said the competition contains costs by leaning heavily on the time, treasure and talent of volunteers serving in a range of capacities:

MENTORS: Adult mentors from the Central Alabama engineering community are needed to serve as adjunct educators and advisors to guide student teams through the design and construction of their Blazer BEST robots during the design and assembly sessions. The six-week commitment begins with Blazer BEST Kick Off Day on Sept. 3 and ends with Game Day on Oct. 17, George said.

JUDGES: Judges are needed for the Oct. 17 Game Day event. Judges will select the event winners, score their performance on the robotics competition course and grade the hypothetical business plans and marketing strategies the teams developed to bring their products to market, George said.

SPONSORS: Blazer BEST relies on financial support of generous benefactors. Gifts in any amount help provide the free BEST experience to students from more than 25 participating schools, George said. George said interested volunteers and sponsors should contact Lyn Lewis at 205-975-2425 or llewis at uab dot edu. Volunteer registration is open until Oct. 10.

About UAB
The UAB School of Engineering offers students real-world experience while they train in one of its degree programs, which include the only undergraduate biomedical engineering program in Alabama. Students experience cutting-edge research opportunities, industry co-ops and unique internships generated by the school’s commitment to interdisciplinary learning.

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If you would like to be a judge, please contact Thomas Saunders, tbsaunders at gmail dot com

Click on the link below for the judges form
http://sections.asme.org/birmingham/Judges_Form_2009.doc

Michelin Tire Retread Plant

Please join us for a tour of the Birmingham Michelin Tire Re-tread Plant on Wednesday, September 23rd. We only have twenty slots available and they are going fast. Please sign up soon to get your name on the list. The drop-dead day for signing up is COB Friday, September 18th.

For contact information, please visit our website: http://sections.asme.org/birmingham/

To sign-up:
1. Email Bryan Coley: ColeyB2 at asme dot org
2. @ reply to our twitter account: Bham_ASME
3. Send us a Facebook Message

Further details will be sent to the tour participants.

See you there!

Blazer BEST Robotics Competition

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is hosting its second BEST Robotics Competition on October 17, 2009 at Bartow Arena.



BEST is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, and technology through participation in sports-like, science and engineering-based robotics competition. There are 23 area middle- and high-schools participating in this year’s event. The event is in need of volunteers to judge different segments of the competition and to assist students with any “troubleshooting” of their robots in the pit area during the competition. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Paul George (pgeorge@uab.edu). Even if you cannot volunteer, come out and support local middle- and high-school students in the competition. For more information, visit the following websites:
Blazer BEST (http://www.eng.uab.edu/BEST)BEST Robotics Inc. (http://www.bestinc.org/MVC)