A project for marketing professor Dave Bussiere’s classes in sales and advertising management has helped to chronicle the experience of students in the Odette School of Business, while contributing to it.

The students produced a special publication, the Odette Business Review, distributed with today’s edition of the Windsor Star. The sales management class sold advertising space to local businesses, and the advertising management class researched and wrote articles, and designed the layout. The Star finalized the production and printing.

“I really appreciate professor Bussiere’s way of teaching, because it’s very hands-on,” said Bonnie Ton, a fourth-year student who took both courses this semester. “You really get a sense of how the theory relates to the practical side.”

She contributed an article on the charitable contributions raised by students in the course Management and Organizational Life, and said the experience proved rewarding.

“I thought I would like sales more, but I enjoyed writing this story, seeing how it’s relevant to the theme Smart with a Heart,” Ton said. “I have a portfolio now!”

Classmate Tony Meng, a fourth-year marketing major, said the project provided a good preparation for his career following graduation.

“You’re really focusing on marketing,” he said. “It’s more applicable to work with actual businesses.”

He sold an ad to Platinum Realty brokers and said he learned to highlight the benefits to the buyer.

“You need advertisements that relate to the student aspect,” he said. “This company will be able to appeal to international students looking for housing near campus.”

Dr. Bussiere said he was impressed with the way the students approached the challenge. Originally slated for 16 pages, the publication grew to 24 pages when ad sales exceeded expectations.

“They really stepped up and made the most of this opportunity,” he said. “I’m going to have to find a different project next year to see if we can top this success.”

Look for the tabloid-sized newspaper inside the April 15 edition of the Windsor Star.

Engineers fix problems—even when they’re still in school.

Joshua Jaekel, a second-year electrical engineering student, was speaking with front-line staff from Windsor Regional Hospital when he realized they had a problem he could solve.

“They needed a cheap way to monitor patients, so we created a circuit that can alert staff when someone gets out of bed,” Jaekel said on April 7 during the UWindsor Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) first Electrical Circuit Design Competition.

Jaekel and his teammate Emilio Quaggiotto took turns laying on a mattress to demonstrate how embedded pressure sensors cushioned by sponges notified users when someone was out of bed by turning a light on. The setup cost under $10 and can double as a system that monitors sleep patterns.

“We wanted a project that actually had a purpose and people wanted,” Jaekel added.

Approximately 80 first and second year electrical engineering students were tasked with designing an electrical circuit using at least one 555 timer—an integrated circuit, or chip, that can be used in a variety of timer, pulse generation and oscillator applications. Course supervisor Mitra Mirhassani said the project teaches students how to integrate sensors and electronic components to create systems that perform a variety of functions.

UWindsor’s IEEE and IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) organized the event and judged each project based on student presentations. Eric Parker and Sean Santarossa won the IEEE electronic design title for their shower water pre-heating system. Other projects ranged from guitar tuners, an Atari punk keyboard, a colour organ to an electro-magnetic power generator and toy car.

IEEE WIE’s top female candidate went to Claudia Lutfallah for her automated plant watering system. Lutfallah and Donovan O’Donnell had tiny pots of flowers on hand to show how their project uses moisture sensors to detect dry soil and trigger a pump that waters the plants. O’Donnell said the automated plant watering system doesn’t overwater plants and requires fewer hours of labour, resulting in cost savings and benefits to the environment.

“We need this experience now to aid us in our future careers,” said Lutfallah. “In first semester, I wasn’t sure how all the theory would benefit us in life. This was an eye-opener.”

A group of electrical and mechanical engineering students from the University of Windsor will help educate the community on emerging green technologies on April 17 at Devonshire Mall.

The group of fourth-year students has designed and built an electric vehicle, which they will race May 17 and 18 in the Electric Vehicle Grand Prix (EVGP) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana.

The public will have a chance to interact with the students and their electric vehicle Sunday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. in front of Purdys Chocolatier.

The team of 20 is the only Canadian team that will compete in the EVGP—a collegiate event that pits teams from universities from as far away as the United Kingdom against each other using electric-powered go-karts. The winner is determined based on a combination of position at the end of the race, efficiency, design and outreach to the community.

Students are challenged with designing an electric vehicle capable of enduring rough racing conditions while travelling up to 50 miles per hour. Students also develop and redefine telemetry systems that remotely monitor the condition of the electric vehicles and their subsystems.