The University of Kentucky mining undergraduate engineering team received first place at the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) annual student design competition held during the SME Annual Conference & Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
SME describes the undergraduate event as “a two-stage competition involving a technical design stage and an oral presentation stage based on an aggregate mining industry design problem. In this way the students can be involved in a ‘real world’ engineering problem and solution prior to graduation.”
Teams were judged on presentation skills, creativity, understanding of aggregate mining processes and thoughtful methodology.
Mining engineering undergraduate student Sampurna Arya placed first and third in poster contests held during the conference. Arya’s poster was titled, “Improving Mine Environment through the Application of a Flooded-bed Scrubber to a Longwall Shearer.” Mining engineering faculty listed on the poster include department chair Thomas Novak, Steven Schafrik and Joseph Sottile.
Ashish Kumar and Oscar Velasquez placed second for their poster titled, "Laboratory Experiments of a Vortecone as an Efficient Dust Scrubbing System." Mining engineering faculty listed on the poster include Steven Schafrik.
Kayla Mayfield also placed in a poster competition. Her poster titled, “Analysis of Face Ventilation during Extended Cut Sequence Using Particle Image Velocimetry” took fifth place.
Congratulations to our outstanding students on their success at SME!
