Section C · Page 20
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, August 16, 1999
No kisses, no princes: Dead frogs live on
Hugo Alamillo, Mexico, senior, holds a preserved frong, one of 280,000 preserved animals in the Natural History Museum collection. Alamillo's main job is to prepare specimens to loan to other museums. Photo by Jamie Roper/KANSAN
Barb Bancbury rolls a metal box with wheels in front of her chair. She pries off the lid, and her office fills with the smell of preserving alcohol. She slips her hand into a pale, blue rubber glove and plunges it into the murky brown water. Submerged in the cold water lies her treasure—about 50 dead turtles.
By Gina Leo
Kansan staff writer
In her first hunt, she pulls out an adult softshell turtle. Its neck stretches about 6 inches out of its shell, and its mouth hangs open. The turtle has been dead for about 30 years, yet is still perfectly preserved.
Banbury, Overland Park junior in biology, works in the University of Kansas Natural History Museum's herpetology department, home to more than 280,000 preserved animals. Countless shelves of jarred and boxed animals fill the collection's four floors and are used for research by students and experts around the globe.
The animals come from 155 countries, 70 percent of which are from the tropics in the Western hemisphere.
John Simmons, the herpetology department's collection manager, said some of the animals 100 years old, and many of the species were extinct.
"To replace the collection, if not impossible, would probably cost millions of dollars. I like to think of it as priceless." Simmons said.
One type of extinct frog in the University's collection was once so prevalent in the Andes mountains that only a few saw the need to preserve them. Today, the frogs are hard to find in any collection. The University has two jars full.
An extinct toad in KU's collection comes
from Africa, where natives licked the toads' moist skin to get a high.
Many of these animals are extinct, making Banbury's work even more important. Her job includes tagging animals and incorporating them into the collection, sending out loans of species, and tank diving — searching tanks of animals to make sure none are missing.
"My job is very precise and gets extremely tedious at times," Bansbury said. "But it's great because it incorporates many fields such as biology and genetics."
"You learn to desensitize yourself," Banbury said.
Banbury gets help from Hugo Alamillo, Chihuahua, Mexico, senior in philosophy. The two work together, fishing through jars and tanks full of preserved animals. They had to adjust to working with dead animals every day.
The herpetology department is very careful when it comes to animal rights, Banbury said. Most of the animals are already dead when they are collected from the fields. If one needs to be killed, though, it is done inducing as little pain as possible.
The department takes great care to maintain the quality of the animals. The collection building, which is kept at a constant 65 degrees, is state-of-the-art. It was finished in 1996 with the help of various grants and donations. The University is the first in the country to have such a building.
"Most people really don't get that excited about seeing a bunch of dead frogs, though," Simmons said.
When guests do come to visit, Simmons does n't hesitate to show them the animals.
The building's size allows many students to conduct research.
- Edited by Anjum Aziz
Student project passes with a wave of the checkered flag
Putting pedal to the metal on the academic track
By Lisa John
Kansan managing editor
It's not every day that KU students get to drive a race car. But once in a while, if they're lucky and happen to be seniors in mechanical engineering, it just might happen.
In fact, it did happen.
This summer at the Society of Automotive Engineers competition in Pontiac, Mich., a formula race car built by 20 KU seniors placed 24th out of 90 collegiate entries.
John Gallon, Phil Brown and Andrew Fairchild pose with this year's senior mechanical engineering project. This is the sixth year that University of Kansas students have built a car and raced it in a national collegiate competition. Photo by Lisa John/KANSAN
Not bad, the students said.
Andrew Fairchild, Lawrence senior and team captain of the senior class project, said this was KU's highest ranking at the competition.
Did it take long to build? A rumbling chuckle (laced with groans) came from the four students who gathered for an interview last week.
As for the car itself, John Gallon, Fredonia senior, said it weighs 560 pounds, is rated at 115 horsepower, can go from zero to 90 miles per hour in five seconds and should "top speed" at around 113 mph.
"Only about 15,000 man hours," Gallon said. "That's counting the time it took to fix our mistakes."
The project began in a class taught by Rob Screm, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, last August.
"Taking it from pencil and paper, or rather from CAD (computer assisted drafting), took nine months," Fairchild said.
The car is fashioned with a carbon body molded into honeycomb layers, said Mike Meakins, Topeka senior.
Fairchild said that this made their car unique at the competition.
This helps because the car is lighter than if the frame was made of steel.
"We were the only full-tub monocoque." Fairchild said. "That means the body is a single structural piece — the body is the frame."
"A steel frame normally runs about 60 pounds, so we shaved about 20 pounds off by making it out of carbon fiber," Meakins
said. "It takes a lot more man hours to do and it's a lot more complicated to do, but it's lighter."
The students built a mold from fiberglass and wood into the shape that they wanted, Meakins said. Then they laid the carbon fiber on top of the mold.
The result is a car body that is lightweight, fireproof and shatter resistant. It's also very flexible, which helps when turning, Gallon said.
The students modified an engine to suit their needs.
Although this is officially an annual senior class project, underclassmen can volunteer to help. Fairchild said his experience working on the 1997 and 1998 cars helped him on this one.
"The engine is off of a street motorcycle. We modify it, and we program our own fuel injection system and make our own intake manifold." Fairchild said.
Beyond the textbook
"Every year we start from scratch on a new car. It's very interesting because you go from being a student to actually applying what you have learned," Fairchild said. "Instead of seeing everything on paper and writing down the homework problem, you're actually applying it and saying, 'Oh, they weren't lying when they said that was going to break if I did that.'"
Gallon agreed, and said, "You have to go outside for research, beyond the textbooks. You're going to find books that can show you what the parameters should be, but mostly you need to talk to somebody with experience."
Fairchild said that two former amateur race car drivers, Clancey Schmidt and Jim Self, were invaluable when team members wanted more information.
"We'll tell them that something will work on paper, and they tell us it's not going to work," Fairchild said. For instance, there might be a bolt in a place where a wrench couldn't fit.
Schmidt said he and Self have been glad to share their years of racing experience with the students.
Self said it's fun to work with the students.
"The main thing we do is try to get them to focus, and we use our practical experience to help keep them on track," Self said. "More than anything, we're just voices of experience.
"We can look at something and say 'I don't think that's going to work because it doesn't look strong enough.' We can do that from experience, whereas they only have the ability to calculate it. Sometimes their calculations are only effective in the best-built principles and sometimes things don't get built as they were calculated."
Phil Brown, Overland Park senior, agreed and said the best thing about the project was that they learn firsthand that things work differently in real life than on paper. "You put it on paper and you say, 'Hey this is going to be great,' but you actually put it together and it's not even close," Brown said.
Track talk
Moreover, an added benefit is that about half of the 20 students get to learn what it's like to don a fireproof suit, maneuver themselves into the compact car, buckle on a five-point safety harness and compete in a car race. They take turns driving at the national competition, participating in the different events.
"It's something that none of us will probably ever get to do again," Fairchild said. So what's it like?
Fairchild said it's not like driving a regular car.
"You hit the gas and you go, 'OK, that's a little different," he said.
Then there's the realization that you're feeling every bump in the road, every vibration. "If there's a pencil you drive over, you'll know it." Fairchild said.
Not only do students wear fireproof suits, but they also must learn how to climb out of the car in five seconds. In a demonstration last week, Brown made it out of the narrow quarters in only 4 1/2 seconds.
Students get to know each other during the year it takes to build the car. Estimates
What do their parents think about the race car driving?
"Mine try to ignore the fact," Fairchild said.
Meakins said his parents approve. "They think it's cool," he said.
of time spent on the project range from 50 to 100 hours per week per student. For the team leader, the load is even heavier, said Sorem, who became faculty adviser for the project in 1995 and began teaching the course in 1998.
Teamwork is where it all begins and ends, Sorem said.
"They start out thinking everybody has the same goals, and they quickly realize that everyone has different goals as to what they want out of the project and as to what they will put into the project," Sorem said.
As for Fairchild's position as team leader, Sorem said, "There's not a huge fight for that position because there is a lot of time commitment."
There's a financial commitment too.
The car costs from $15,000 to $20,000 to build, Sorem said. Most of that, he said, came from the department and the school, with outside sponsors helping with the rest.
An additional cost is the $6,000-$8,000 it takes to get the car and team to the competition and back, Sorem said. Again, students work together, helping raise money
Getting along
"But the worst part is that that's when the team breaks up, and I'll never see a lot of the students again."
Former racecar driver Clancey Schmidt said that this year he was particularly proud of the KU team's results at the national competition.
"The most rewarding part is at the end of competition — when we're done, we can look at the car and say 'We made it work, we did the whole thing and it's ours,' Sorem said.
"They did real well, and I think they can even do a lot better." he said.
"They've learned how to get ready for an event; they know how to double check everything on the car; they know how to build it so it won't break and they know what the judges are looking for," Schmidt said.
And as for taking 24th place in this year's event, Schmidt said, "There's an old adage in racing that to finish first, first you must finish. And they've been finishing."
For Sorem and the students, the highlight of the year — the national competition — celebrates nine months of teamwork, albeit with a bittersweet ending.
— Edited by Derek Prater
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