SIUE Engineering Students Take First in IEEE Black Box Contest
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering students Frank Cobian and Curtis Meuth took first place in the 2015 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Saint Louis Section Black Box competition held in mid-November at Saint Louis University. Fellow SIUE students Daniel Crockett and Kristen Collins were runners-up.
Three teams representing SIUE’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department competed in the contest where students are given electronic circuits enclosed in a box. They were asked to draw the electrical schematic of the circuit inside. The box only contains four terminals, which the teams can use to make electrical measurements to help them unravel the mystery of what is inside the box.
This is the first time SIUE has won the annual competition. As a result, SIUE will host the 2016 IEEE Saint Louis Section Black Box competition next November. Each year, a traveling plaque goes to the winning school with the winners’ names engraved.
Seniors Cobian, of Plainfield, and Mueth, of St. Peters, Mo., received $500 for their effort. Crockett, a senior from Swansea, and Collins, a junior from Belleville, received $300.
The IEEE is an organization composed of engineers, scientists and students. The IEEE is one of the largest professional organizations for engineers in the world. Other Universities in the Saint Louis Section of the IEEE include Saint Louis, Missouri University of Science and Technology, University of Missouri-Columbia, Washington University and Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
In late October, two teams of SIUE electrical and computer engineering students participated in the IEEE-Xtreme programming contest against 1,944 teams. This is the third year SIUE students have participated in the worldwide programming contest.
The team led by senior John Kercher, of Alton, finished 221st. They placed 20th nationally among 196 U.S. teams.
IEEE-Xtreme is a global online challenge in which teams of IEEE students compete in a 24-hour time span to solve a set of programming problems. Kercher’s teammates were seniors Andrew Quirin, of Belleville, and Bryan Orabutt, of Edwardsville.
The other SIUE team was comprised of seniors Jack White and Brandon Boeckman of O’Fallon, Ill., and junior Addison Elliott, of Edwardsville.
The teams were proctored by George Engel, PhD and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Photo: SIUE School of Engineering students Curtis Meuth and Frank Cobian.
