A team of EEUM students, namely Vera Luciana da Silva Neto, Pedro Miguel Rosas Faria, Nuno Braga Ferreira and Luís Filipe Sousa e Silva, students from the Integrated Master Programme in Mechanical Engineering (MIEMEC) and also Fábio Ribeiro, student from the Integrated Master Programme in Polymer Engineering (MIEPOL), won the competition “Sou Olá 2016”, an initiative carried out by Unilever Portugal, a company owning several brands including the Portuguese ice cream brand “Olá”.
The students designed, dimensioned and built a functional prototype of an ice cream mobile sales cart. The UMinho’s team, supervised by Pedro Lobarinhas e João Pedro Mendonça, Assistant Professors from the Department of Mechanical Engineering (DEM) of the EEUM, won the 10.000€ award.
OLÁ challenged four Portuguese universities - University of Minho, University of Porto (FEUP), University of Lisbon (IST) and the University of Aveiro, to organize teams in order to develop a prototype of a futuristic mobile sales cart. The developed vehicle was assessed based on 4 criteria: ecological, innovation, production cost optimization and functionality.
“We managed to gather colleagues from the Integrated Master Programme in Mechanical Engineering willing to accept the challenge. Then a colleague from the Integrated Master Programme in Polymer Engineering joined the group”, Vera Neto referred. “Personally, I am very enthusiastic about experimental projects which allow us to combine the theoretical component of our degree with a practical element. In this case, all of the competitions’ objectives, as well as the award, the prototype development itself and the available budget were all appealing factors”, the student added.
The team designed the new mobile cart, both regarding energy and structural elements, and accompanied the prototype production process with the suppliers.
“The prototype works really well in maintaining the temperature, which is a fundamental aspect for ice cream carts. The design was considered exceptional and very attractive. The model will not be improved as far as materials are concerned, especially considering the structural weight”, students referred. The team also developed an application client/cart, allowing the customer to track to closest mobile sales cart and know which ice cream references are still in stock.
Participating in this competition, students had the opportunity to gain experience from a real project with market consequences, to develop professional skills such as team work and multidisciplinary abilities, to work with deadlines and objectives, as in any other professional experience. In addition, the teams were also able to research, learn about and develop and know more about the latest technological trends.
About the experience and acquired skills, the team’s opinion is unanimous: “We acquired competences, such as contacting suppliers, dealing with difficulties, communicating, which prepared us to daily life as professionals in a company, in the future. We also had the opportunity to start building a contact network and acquire more technical knowledge”, students referred.
