UC Davis

By requiring students to meet demanding functional specifications using limited resources, the competitive Shigley Hauler project offers undergraduate students practical "hands-on" experience in the design, fabrication, and testing of mechanical systems. The project imparts a thorough experiential understanding of the key principles that govern the selection and integration of basic machinery components - gears, shafts, bearings, DC motors, etc. - into a robust and efficient working system. The Shigley Hauler project has been successfully incorporated into the mechanical engineering curriculum at UC Davis for more than a decade, and its pedagogical and motivational value is corroborated by student feedback. The project is run within a 10-week timeframe, and entails only modest costs for the instructor and student teams.