Updated: 10-23-24
The Bechtel Center is a proud host and sponsor of more than two dozen student teams with a variety of focuses from robotics and rocketry to racing and product development. While any student team is free to work in the Center, what separates the Bechtel Center team space from most other team spaces on campus is its proximity and ease of access to a variety of manufacturing methods to further their project. It’s also a limited capacity space and, while we’d like to be able to accommodate as many projects as we can, it’s simply not feasible to continue packing people in. Accordingly, the introduction or further explanation of the following policies are a step towards realizing the actual competitiveness of the space and ensuring those the Center houses will be active, exemplary members. This page details the various requirements and expectations for those teams to retain their space and accompanying benefits.
New Teams: Assembly and other team areas are full, so the Center is not able to host new teams at this time.
Teams Supervisor Contact Info
- Josh Tolemy, Graduate Mentor and Teams Liaison
- Email: jtolemy@purdue.edu
- Discord: JTolemy
Team Structure
Identified Leadership – The leadership of the team should have active communication with the Center’s appointed individuals for teams such that all contact info is up to date as far as names, emails, and advisor info and they’re given roles in the discord. This also includes notifying Center liaisons of leadership transitions. If we can’t communicate with a team effectively, we won’t house them.
- Submit this form if you need to update the contact info for your team.
Information Dissemination – For the sake of simplicity and stable communication, team leadership should communicate directly with the Center’s liaisons. Similarly, liaisons should communicate with the leadership as there’s no way for us to be able to communicate with every single member of 20+ teams. That leadership would then be expected to fully communicate any pertinent information to the rest of their team, so any claims from their members of not being informed would accordingly fall on the team’s leadership.
Center Engagement
Full Usage of the Center – The Center is not a storage facility or minor workspace and will not be treated like one. Teams given usage of the Assembly space should have a project scope which includes the usage of some of the Center’s other facilities. For example, needing a certain part and planning to machine it in the metal shop.
- Teams should include their team’s name or acronym in any OS1 projects for ease of auditing this.
Community Engagement – The Center strives to create an impactful community of likeminded makers. A big part of that is mentoring one another and introducing each other to new opportunities and experiences whether that be in the form of workshops, industry contacts, or something else. We would expect teams to assist with and engage in the creation of this community in some way.
- Contact the Community Manager to schedule these types of events.
- Email: perry58@purdue.edu
- Discord: christinaperry_58
Team Activity and Access
Access Requirements – Assembly, High Bay, and the various reservable areas of the building each have requirements in terms of training and expectations for what can be done there. These policies are detailed on the Center Access Policies page.
Access Lists – At present, each team is permitted up to 30 members with door access to the space. These individuals are responsible for permitting access to the rest of their team members who don’t have it, and they’re additionally responsible for the safe conduct of those they let in.
- Team leadership should reach out to the Teams Liaison with an Excel or Google Sheet of the names and Purdue emails of the 30 team members if they wish to have it updated.
- Exceptions and temporary extensions of the 30-person list for competitions, busy weeks, etc. may be granted, and any requests for such should be sent to the Teams Liaison.
Safety – Teams should conduct themselves safely and appropriately whenever working. As one of the most important factors in their usage of the space and one with the most broad-reaching topics, safety is broken down into subsections.
- Training – Team members should all have the necessary Brightspace training/HazCom/SOP for wherever they’re working and whatever they’re doing. For Assembly, this includes:
- PPE – Team members should always wear the appropriate PPE for whatever they’re doing.
- Chemical and Battery Handling – Teams that use chemicals of any kind or work with batteries above a certain grade will need to conduct themselves according to the relevant SDS’s and SOP’s.
- The chemical handling and approval policy is detailed here.
Cleanliness & Stewardship – Aside from an organized space being far easier to work in, teams are occupying a space that doesn’t belong to them. For safety and common courtesy, teams should keep their designated spaces and any common areas they use organized and free of debris.
- The expectation of cleanliness remains year-round, but a few days at the end of each semester will be explicitly dedicated to group clean-up.
Project Progress – Teams should be making some identifiable progress on the goals they set for themselves. A stalled-out project occupies the space for what could otherwise be an active, progressing team.
Infraction History – Teams with a history of routine infractions despite standard attempts at course correction are often those who take the Center for granted the most. While more intensive intervention can solve the problem, time is better spent investing in those appropriately engaging with the Center than correcting those who seemingly don’t care.