About The Mentors
These people listed below have been essential to our project and have made it better and more professional than it ever could have been if only the team worked on it. The team feels extremely lucky to have had the ability to work with these people.
Sergeant Culp
Sergeant Culp is the School Resource Officer at our school. This past year, he has been invaluable to our project. The team knew at the project's inception that in order to accurately represent the needs of officers, we needed to be able to contact an officer. Sergeant Culp was more than happy to oblige. He has taken hours of time out of his day whenever we needed him, gave us crucial information about the many aspects and struggles officers experience, given us crucial feedback, guided us down the right path, sent out our survey to the city's police department, weathered through our bizarre building process, collected hundreds of dollars of donated Kevlar, tested our carrier and panels, and believed in our project and goals. In summary, he turned a topic that our team jumped into having no idea what we were doing into something manageable and relatable.
Dr. Van Patten
Dr. Van Patten is the head of the chemistry department at MTSU. Our team was referred to him because we needed facilities, equipment, and mentoring in order to manufacture the shear thickening fluid for our panels. He graciously offered his research lab, any equipment they had that we needed, and materials that we didn't purchase. Also, he has spent many hours guiding us with our plethora of questions with equipment, the process, and so on. When we've had late nights and had to come in on Saturdays, he has willingly stayed or came to MTSU. Dr Van Patten also did this for three months, which is even more impressive. Without his help, we could not have manufactured the shear thickening fluid.
Mrs. Murphy
Mrs. Murphy is an engineering teacher at our school, who is also an experienced seamstress. The team needed someone to construct our carrier so that it would be of professional quality, unlike our hodgepodge-of-fabric first prototype. She took our design, measurements, and material and spent hours of her time to complete our carrier. When Officer Culp tried the vest on, it fit perfectly, unlike our first fabric design. Despite her job as a teacher and the time required to accomplish this, she never required payment (We definitely gave our mentors gifts though) Needless to say, it looks really professional, a feat that would have been impossible for us.
Eric Showalter
Eric Showalter is an automotive engineer who lives in Detroit, Michigan. He was our first mentor and offered invaluable advice about the engineering process. Over the course this year, he has helped out greatly with how to format and create high quality documentation and paperwork, how to scientifically approach every aspect of the project, how to create and adhere to a schedule, and how to adapt to setbacks. He also helped to narrow the scope of this project and helped the group pivot when we encountered a task beyond our capabilities.
Dr. Carter
Dr. Carter is the English IV teacher at our school. He has spent time during and after school helping us design and revise some of the textual aspects of our project, This includes helping us revise our survey and helping us draft out our presentation.
Sergeant Culp
Sergeant Culp is the School Resource Officer at our school. This past year, he has been invaluable to our project. The team knew at the project's inception that in order to accurately represent the needs of officers, we needed to be able to contact an officer. Sergeant Culp was more than happy to oblige. He has taken hours of time out of his day whenever we needed him, gave us crucial information about the many aspects and struggles officers experience, given us crucial feedback, guided us down the right path, sent out our survey to the city's police department, weathered through our bizarre building process, collected hundreds of dollars of donated Kevlar, tested our carrier and panels, and believed in our project and goals. In summary, he turned a topic that our team jumped into having no idea what we were doing into something manageable and relatable.
Dr. Van Patten
Dr. Van Patten is the head of the chemistry department at MTSU. Our team was referred to him because we needed facilities, equipment, and mentoring in order to manufacture the shear thickening fluid for our panels. He graciously offered his research lab, any equipment they had that we needed, and materials that we didn't purchase. Also, he has spent many hours guiding us with our plethora of questions with equipment, the process, and so on. When we've had late nights and had to come in on Saturdays, he has willingly stayed or came to MTSU. Dr Van Patten also did this for three months, which is even more impressive. Without his help, we could not have manufactured the shear thickening fluid.
Mrs. Murphy
Mrs. Murphy is an engineering teacher at our school, who is also an experienced seamstress. The team needed someone to construct our carrier so that it would be of professional quality, unlike our hodgepodge-of-fabric first prototype. She took our design, measurements, and material and spent hours of her time to complete our carrier. When Officer Culp tried the vest on, it fit perfectly, unlike our first fabric design. Despite her job as a teacher and the time required to accomplish this, she never required payment (We definitely gave our mentors gifts though) Needless to say, it looks really professional, a feat that would have been impossible for us.
Eric Showalter
Eric Showalter is an automotive engineer who lives in Detroit, Michigan. He was our first mentor and offered invaluable advice about the engineering process. Over the course this year, he has helped out greatly with how to format and create high quality documentation and paperwork, how to scientifically approach every aspect of the project, how to create and adhere to a schedule, and how to adapt to setbacks. He also helped to narrow the scope of this project and helped the group pivot when we encountered a task beyond our capabilities.
Dr. Carter
Dr. Carter is the English IV teacher at our school. He has spent time during and after school helping us design and revise some of the textual aspects of our project, This includes helping us revise our survey and helping us draft out our presentation.