Riveting Remote Control Car Competition at Westmont

It was Thursday afternoon, and sunlight poured over the manicured Kerrwood Hall lawn where hordes of Westmont College students flocked to witness an annual spectacle. Remote-control race cars zoomed across the green in anticipation of the upcoming competition. One car was decked out in all pink, dubbed the “Barbie” car, another was attached to a pair of wings, and others were painted with eclectic designs and insignias.

“Imagine the thrill and excitement of high-speed racing, but on a miniature scale, welcome to Westmont RC car race, the place where we put our engineering powers to ultimate test,” said student Mia Rapalo.

Each year, Dr. Dan Jensen of the mechanical engineering department organizes a Remote Control (RC) Car Competition for the students in his Machine Design class. Students are divided into groups of two and instructed to build an RC car that can successfully race and endure a car jump.

This year’s competition comprised a 60 second “elevator pitch” where the students delineated the learning process of building the RC car, followed by a head-to-head race on a figure-eight-shaped course, and finally ending with a car jump.

Students eagerly gushed with excitement over the impending race and elaborated on the nuances of building the race cars.

“This process taught us that durability needs to be designed for, because as a manufacturer, you never know what someone’s going to do with your car. As a wise man once said, ‘Anyone can pilot the boat when it’s in the harbor, but what are you like when you’re in the open sea?’” said Landon Vanderhyde.

“This project brought engineering principles to life and deepened our understanding of machine design through teamwork and problem solving,” student Grace Morgan remarked, explaining how this project allowed her to apply concepts that she learned in class to a real-world context.

Soon the competition ensued. As the cars revved their miniature engines at the starting line, more students gathered to watch this thrilling phenomenon. Also in attendance was reigning champion Noah Shen. He is now a TA for the class and utilizes his passion and experience with the RC car process to mentor students.

The students focused intensely, while onlookers bantered about the race as the cars fought for the coveted first-place position. On one occasion when two RC cars collided, a spectator called out, “I hope they have insurance!”

After several rematches due to ties, Gavin Stay and Renna Sequeira took home the first place prize in the race portion of the competition. The next segment was the jump, and the cars took their places at the top of a slant, positioning themselves to speed down the hill and soar off the ramp.

Laughs rang out among the crowd as some cars missed the jump altogether, others landing just as soon as they left the ramp, and one car clearly surpassing the competition with a whopping 218 airborne inches. That car belonged to Landon Vanderhyde and Kyler Hanson, who excitedly celebrated after their two successful launches.

As the competition wrapped up, the students waited in anticipation of Jensen announcing the desired first-place position. After a suspenseful pause, Grace Morgan and Ainsley Martin were this year’s winners. Landon Vanderhyde and Kyler Hanson took home second place overall, while Abigail Lingel and Celeste Marquez came in third.

This declaration was met with mixed reactions, but all in playful intent. In the end, all of the students gathered to congratulate this year’s winners and rejoice in the culmination of the process and class.

Third-year Westmont College engineering majors Grace Morgan and Ainsley Martin expressed their excitement at having been bestowed the first-place position. “It’s super exciting. It was really cool to see how to apply everything that we’ve learned in class to an actual application and see how it all comes together,” said Ainsley Martin.

“After all the math, all the learning, all the writing, everything, we finally got to the point in our engineering program that we could apply all of these skills and it was very cool,” Grace Morgan reflected.

Inspired by his desire to provide a fun and rewarding experience for the diligent and strenuous work that engineering students are accustomed to, Jensen began holding the competitions three years ago

“Research data literally says that you learn better when you’re having fun,” Jensen explained, when asked about the methods of his teaching. He enjoys watching students have fun while they are learning.

The process of making these cars was not all seamless — Jensen said that the building process was time-consuming and often had “students emailing me very frustrated, saying, ‘I can’t get this to work or that to work.’” Jensen described how the difficulties of the process pay off when he sees the “raw joy in getting their contraption to actually fly off the jump.”

He continued, “I think how hard it is to get a physical engineering system to work is really important for engineers to know. For my students to learn that it all looks good on paper and then it’s hard to get it to actually work, that’s the real deal.”

Through watching the RC car learning and assembly process, Jensen expresses his confidence that these skills will be translatable to the rest of the students’ lives.

“This class has been so fun,” said student Gavin Stay. “We’ve learned things like gears, bearings, and shafts, and those are all good in the classroom, but real-life, hands-on work is way more valuable.”