CET students build doghouses for SPOT, donate others to local animal rescue
SPOT tries out one of the doghouses from the competition
By Cam Adams
The aroma of sawdust filled the air for weeks on end inside the construction management lab in Belk. Hammers were banging, drills were squealing and six different teams were looking to make their mark on the College of Engineering and Technology — while helping local dogs in the process.
ĚđąĎĘÓƵapp construction management students competed in a design-and-build doghouse competition for SPOT, the college’s robotic dog. The remaining five doghouses were donated to Sarge’s Animal Rescue in Waynesville.
Chris Cox, assistant professor of construction management speaks to the crowd about the competition
“What I try to emphasize with them is that construction management and engineering isn't just about methods and materials. It's really about people and purpose,” said Chris Cox, assistant professor of construction management.
“When I see that message click in them, and then you see that they're working on something that's sort of bigger than them, it's just really neat to watch.”
Group Four, led by project manager Audrey Lewis (Peshtigo, Wisconsin), won the contest for the SPOT’s doghouse, while Group Six, headed by project manager Maggie Whalen (Hickory), was named the best donated doghouse.
The set of doghouses were judged based on whether they were big enough to accommodate SPOT’s movement and substantial enough to reduce noise as SPOT charges.
Group 4 winners
Doghouses were judged by Windy McKinney, the executive director at Sarge’s, Debbie Cole, a representative from Boston Dynamics, which created SPOT, and Eco-Panels CEO Charles Leahy, who donated the doghouse materials.
“It's really cool seeing people come together for a good cause and a good reason, especially this time of year right now when it's getting chillier and there's so many dogs that are outside, so if we can provide at least something and keep a dog warm, it's going to save a life,” said Emily Trigin, the events and fundraising coordinator at Sarge’s.
“All these students that put this together are saving lives right now, whether or not they know it.”
The Construction Project Management class competition all started with a hallway conversation last summer. Jason Ottie, a systems programmer in the College of Engineering and Technology, posed a question to Cox, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we built SPOT a doghouse?”
He loved the idea, which prompted his own conception: a design-build competition, but he didn’t know what he’d do with the remaining doghouses. Then, Ottie, a former board member for Sarge’s Animal Rescue, suggested they could be donated to the animal protection organization.
Electrical and computer engineering technologu winning team Andrew McCoy and Marcus Milliron show their project to judges
Cox’s class teamed up with the electrical and computer engineering technology program, which held its own competition for the SPOT doghouse’s electrical components. Seniors Andrew McCoy (Newport) and Marcus Milliron (Newland) won it, and their control system will be installed in SPOT’s new digs.
“Our design, basically, is there is a button to turn the lights on in the doghouse, so SPOT can actually move in, see the QR code so he can scan and charge,” McCoy said. “Passively, we have a temperature sensor that monitors the temperature in the doghouse.
“Should the temperature ever get to an unsafe level to where the battery efficiency goes down, a fan will turn on, since it moves more air that's in the doghouse, it'll drop the temperature down significantly, allowing nothing to get damaged.”
Like the ECET students, Cox’s construction management students spend ample time designing their respective doghouses. In the lab for hours at a time, students looked for ways to make their designs stand out, sometimes bouncing ideas off each other.
Lewis’ group, composed of Spencer Dunning (Charlotte), Scott Alligood Jr. (Sylva), Kevin Sanchez (Hudson) and Styler Lee (Hickory), aimed to start small, but made their doghouse bigger as needed. They also sought to make it compatible for both SPOT and dogs alike.
The group led by Whelan, which included Sascha Medina (Salisbury), Kionna Bowles (Landis) and Jonathan Newsome (New London), looked to do the same, featuring double doors, a double slant roof and a panel filled with purple and gold hands, painted by kids at Whelan’s church.
The winning "real dog" doghouse that will be donated along with the other doghouses to Sarge's Animal Rescue
Though Whelan’s doghouse wasn’t selected to be SPOT’s new abode, having her group’s project being used to help dogs hits close to home for the senior.
“I love SPOT. I think it's really cool, but also, I love animals,” Whelan said. “We used to foster puppies all the time, so just the fact that I'm getting to give a home to a real dog just pulls on your heart strings.”
For Lewis, having her group’s doghouse being used by SPOT for years to come has its own merit.
“I think that it's really interesting that I'll be able to come back, whether it's I'm coming to see kids from the program, coming to talk to kids from the program, and they'll be able to see something that I've worked on... which I think is really awesome kind of that leaving that legacy,” Lewis said.
