UNL Team Second at International Quarter Scale Tractor Student Design Competition

June 14, 2013

LINCOLN, Neb. — Two University of Nebraska-Lincoln quarter scale teams competed in the International Quarter Scale Tractor Student Design Competition from May 30-June 2.

The X team placed second overall and the A team placed fourth in the tractor pulling competition.

The X team consisted of freshman and sophomores who improved the tractor built by last year's A team.

"There was an issue with the brakes last year," said Roger Hoy, director of the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab and adviser to the team. "The X team was able to improve braking capacity by about 33 percent."

The X team competed in three competitions: presentation, design report and pulls.

Tractor companies including John Deere and Caterpillar sponsor the event.

"The companies are fun to work with," Hoy said. "They are the people that would have been students here 5-20 years ago. It is really a chance for the students to see what they might become in a few years."

Junior Robert Olsen was the captain of the X team. He had worked on the tractor during 2011-2012 school year when he was on the A team.

"I liked how the competition allows students to get experience in the real world," Olsen said. "On the X team you are working on continuous improvement, which is what you are going to be doing in the real world."

Olsen used his previous experience with the tractor to teach his two teammates.

"The other members of the X team hadn't been to competitions," Olsen said. "I'm there to lead them to be able to solve the problems that I knew the tractor had."

As for placing second, Olsen said he wasn't surprised.

"I knew the tractor would perform the pulls really well."