Power Wheels project no 'child's play'

  Thursday, December 10, 2015 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

It may have featured a kid’s toy, but a graduate project featuring a Power Wheels car was far from child’s play for a group of Pittsburg State engineering technology students.

Students in Ronny Galloway’s Collaborative Projects in Engineering Technology course were tasked this semester with converting a Power Wheels car into a remote-controlled Power Wheels car.

“The challenge for the students was to outfit the car with the proper systems and components that would allow it to be controlled by remote control,” said Galloway, an associate professor in Pitt State’s engineering technology department.

Graduate student Mark Cochran, one of the group members, thought it sounded easy enough.

“At first, when I heard we were to take a Power Wheels toy and modify it, I thought it sounded too easy,” he said. “Then we looked at the requirements set aside for us, we had to go through the whole spectrum of everything we learned in the last eight to 10 courses. It really became a challenge.”

On Wednesday, Dec. 9, the students put their design and modification skills to the test, by remotely controlling the car as it moved about the Kansas Technology Center.

“They passed,” Galloway said. “They truly did a great job on this.”