Westmont students race RC cars for engineering course

MONTECITO, Calif. – Westmont engineering students went off to the races during class Monday morning.

They raced foot-long remote control cars on a short oval racetrack.

The students made the kit cars using hundreds of parts as part of their machine design course.

Dan Jensen, director of the engineering program, says it's a good challenge for the students to manufacture the cars while learning about power transfer and suspension systems.

"While they learn the analytics of how to analyze those things, they also build a car from a kit of parts," Jensen said. "It's hundreds of parts. They build these RC cars so they get hands on experience with the sorts of mechanical components that they are working on as part of the engineering class."

Now in its third year, Westmont’s engineering major is gaining traction with about two dozen new students enrolling this fall.