STUDENT SUPPORT

Working With Wind

Chris Connor '07 says he had a great time participating in the "Mini Baja" competition during his four years as a mechanical engineering student at UVM. But it wasn't just for fun. He also knew the experience would give him a competitive advantage in the job market for entry-level engineers when he graduated.

Baja SAE consists of three regional competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are challenged to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain. They must function as teams to design, build, test, promote, and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, and also to generate financial support for their project while managing their educational priorities.

As a part of the design process for the UVM vehicle, Chris became acquainted with a 3D mechanical design and 3D CAD program used in his engineering design classes and widely used in industry. The software, it turns out, is the same used to design the state-of-the-art wind turbines made by Chris' employer, Distributed Energy Systems in Barre, Vermont.

"I had worked as an intern before I was hired for a full-time position," he says. "They knew I had a lot of good experience with SolidWorks, and I think that made a difference in their decision to hire me." The company's turbines are designed for providing power to remote areas. Chris says he's enjoying his first engineering job and looking forward to a trip to Colorado to see a prototype of a 100kW wind turbine that he helped design last summer.

Chris was also a recipient of the Wilfred and Sylvia Hill Scholarship Fund in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences during his senior year. Wilfred "Bill" Hill received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from UVM in 1948, and Sylvia graduated with a degree in home economics and dietetics a year later. Both fields are as relevant to today's societal needs as they were during their own undergraduate years, they reasoned, and so the Wilfred and Sylvia Hill Scholarship Funds — one in Engineering and Mathematical Sciences and one in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences — were created to provide support to Vermont students majoring in engineering and in dietetics or nutrition and food sciences.

First awarded in 2006–2007, the Hill Scholarships have already provided more than $430,000 in financial assistance to Vermont students.

The scholarship was "a huge help" to him and his family during his senior year, Chris says. "I didn't have to take out any loans for senior year, even though I was paying for my own housing." He has a brother who is a sophomore at UVM and a sister in high school who will be in college soon, so he says the scholarship was really a gift to his whole family.

The Hills say they want their scholarships to help with another important priority — keeping bright young Vermonters in Vermont. "That's a big issue today," says Bill, himself a native Vermonter. "We need to do what we can to keep these bright kids here, to be challenged academically, and to excel in a way that helps them, the University, and the state."

That would certainly seem to describe the experience of Chris Connor.