Nasa, The Customer. The Goal: To Create A Safe Landing Craft.
On November 16, 2009, the OEM (Organizing for Effective Management) class met in Knight Auditorium for a challenge and hands-on lesson.
They were told that NASA is their new client and that they must create a safe, cost-effective landing device for NASA’s spacecrafts. They were placed in teams, given a bag of materials to work with, and an hour to complete the project. They would be judged on the creativity of their design, its effectiveness, cost, speed, sustainability value, and teamwork.
Their final prototypes were tested by dropping an egg encased in their just-designed ‘craft’ from the Knight balcony to a target placed on the floor below. If the payload (egg) broke, they had failed their mission.
The winner will be announced in the next class meeting.
There to inspire the students was Matheos Stamm, son of ’93 alumni Sophia Lazeritus and Kevin Stamm (missing from picture), and grandson of management professor Jack Stamm. Matheos, dressed in his Halloween astronaut suit and with a cast on his broken foot, demonstrated what happens if the payload in the landing craft fails… something breaks! It prompted laughter, but was an effective display!