Petition to accelerate and enhance support for critical space needs of UCD student teams
The Issue
The Engineering Student Design Center, Bainer 1220 and 1230, and the current student design team space, Bainer 1236, will be undergoing renovations over the next 3 years. Currently, there are plans in motion to relocate all the student design teams in Bainer 1236 (Baja SAE, Eclipse Rocketry, Formula SAE, OneLoop) to Inventopia, an off-campus, non-profit technology center affiliated with the UC Davis Office of Research (Figure 1).
Inventopia currently has 800 sq. ft. which can be dedicated to student teams in the shop it has recently leased on Pena Drive. It is willing to accommodate student needs, but would do so by removing collaborative working space currently planned for this new location, in order to accommodate storage and workbenches for the Student Teams (blue blocks below).
Previously, student design teams have had 3700 sq. ft. of work/storage space between Bainer 1236, 1236A, and the upstairs Annex. Because of this, many design teams will not have adequate space to work on our projects, leaving many teams with little choice but to discontinue.
To prevent this, Inventopia is willing to lease an adjoining suite which is currently vacant, but is unable to commit to doing so until it knows the magnitude of the university’s commitment to the student teams off-campus space during this transition.
This expanded footprint will give student design teams the dedicated storage and work space they need (Figure 2). In addition, this will allow Inventopia to have a more logical layout in the remaining areas, including a group CAD work and collaboration space which would otherwise be sacrificed for storage.
Inventopia has sponsored the Formula SAE team and the Space and Satellite Systems team for the past two years, and continues to desire to integrate undergraduate activities into the daily life of their technology center. Their desire in this expansion phase is to move quickly to occupy these spaces before other companies have a chance to lease them. This sense of urgency is one we share given the timeline of the student teams to remove themselves from Bainer Hall by the end of the month, and the upcoming work of the teams starting this fall.
Student design teams are the backbone of the MAE department. All teams are entirely student run, such that all design, fabrication, planning, marketing, and outreach is done by students. Our alumni leave the team with invaluable hands-on engineering experience, and have accomplished outstanding work in industry. In fact, many of our members claim to have chosen UC Davis primarily because of our accomplished design teams.
Some of these notable accomplishments include the following:
- Based on the number of tests passed, OneLoop placed 3rd in the US and top-ten in the world
- In the most recent competition (2019), Formula Racing at UC Davis placed 4th overall, 3rd in the United States, 2nd in Endurance and 2nd in Cost at the FSAE Electric competition
- In 2019, the Space and Satellite Systems was one of five university teams to present their plans for a Mars greenhouse at the NASA Langley Research Center
As you can see, our student teams are nothing short of amazing. We are empowered, driven, and determined Aggies who will continue to represent UC Davis by entering innovative projects into these international competitions.
Having to move out to an off-campus location in the middle of a pandemic, we are in a time of need.
We need the university to financially support Inventopia’s expansion so that it can provide student teams with the space they need.
We are also asking the university for urgency in making this happen. Student teams have been asked to move out of Bainer Hall by the end of the month, but arrangements with Inventopia are not yet in place.
We are asking for your support in this petition so we can continue to make remarkable accomplishments and attract brilliant students to join UC Davis.
Thank you,
Student Design Teams of UC Davis
Please feel free to look through some of our student team websites for more of our accomplishments and our competition entries:
Petition Closed
The Issue
The Engineering Student Design Center, Bainer 1220 and 1230, and the current student design team space, Bainer 1236, will be undergoing renovations over the next 3 years. Currently, there are plans in motion to relocate all the student design teams in Bainer 1236 (Baja SAE, Eclipse Rocketry, Formula SAE, OneLoop) to Inventopia, an off-campus, non-profit technology center affiliated with the UC Davis Office of Research (Figure 1).
Inventopia currently has 800 sq. ft. which can be dedicated to student teams in the shop it has recently leased on Pena Drive. It is willing to accommodate student needs, but would do so by removing collaborative working space currently planned for this new location, in order to accommodate storage and workbenches for the Student Teams (blue blocks below).
Previously, student design teams have had 3700 sq. ft. of work/storage space between Bainer 1236, 1236A, and the upstairs Annex. Because of this, many design teams will not have adequate space to work on our projects, leaving many teams with little choice but to discontinue.
To prevent this, Inventopia is willing to lease an adjoining suite which is currently vacant, but is unable to commit to doing so until it knows the magnitude of the university’s commitment to the student teams off-campus space during this transition.
This expanded footprint will give student design teams the dedicated storage and work space they need (Figure 2). In addition, this will allow Inventopia to have a more logical layout in the remaining areas, including a group CAD work and collaboration space which would otherwise be sacrificed for storage.
Inventopia has sponsored the Formula SAE team and the Space and Satellite Systems team for the past two years, and continues to desire to integrate undergraduate activities into the daily life of their technology center. Their desire in this expansion phase is to move quickly to occupy these spaces before other companies have a chance to lease them. This sense of urgency is one we share given the timeline of the student teams to remove themselves from Bainer Hall by the end of the month, and the upcoming work of the teams starting this fall.
Student design teams are the backbone of the MAE department. All teams are entirely student run, such that all design, fabrication, planning, marketing, and outreach is done by students. Our alumni leave the team with invaluable hands-on engineering experience, and have accomplished outstanding work in industry. In fact, many of our members claim to have chosen UC Davis primarily because of our accomplished design teams.
Some of these notable accomplishments include the following:
- Based on the number of tests passed, OneLoop placed 3rd in the US and top-ten in the world
- In the most recent competition (2019), Formula Racing at UC Davis placed 4th overall, 3rd in the United States, 2nd in Endurance and 2nd in Cost at the FSAE Electric competition
- In 2019, the Space and Satellite Systems was one of five university teams to present their plans for a Mars greenhouse at the NASA Langley Research Center
As you can see, our student teams are nothing short of amazing. We are empowered, driven, and determined Aggies who will continue to represent UC Davis by entering innovative projects into these international competitions.
Having to move out to an off-campus location in the middle of a pandemic, we are in a time of need.
We need the university to financially support Inventopia’s expansion so that it can provide student teams with the space they need.
We are also asking the university for urgency in making this happen. Student teams have been asked to move out of Bainer Hall by the end of the month, but arrangements with Inventopia are not yet in place.
We are asking for your support in this petition so we can continue to make remarkable accomplishments and attract brilliant students to join UC Davis.
Thank you,
Student Design Teams of UC Davis
Please feel free to look through some of our student team websites for more of our accomplishments and our competition entries:
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on August 23, 2020