Cal Poly’s SAMPE Club turns precision, creativity and teamwork into top finishes on the international stage
At an international competition in Indianapolis, Cal Poly engineering students watched as their column design was tested to its limit. When it finally cracked, the break confirmed what they’d hoped all along: their design had done exactly what it was meant to do.
The event was part of the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering International Student Competition (SAMPE), which challenges students to design and manufacture structures that are both lightweight and strong. Each entry is tested until it fails, demonstrating how well it balances strength and efficiency — a true measure of creativity and engineering skill.
“It was one of the best feelings, seeing something we designed survive that kind of test,” said mechanical engineering junior Caleb Singh, president of Cal Poly’s SAMPE Club.
Singh’s team went on to sweep the additive manufacturing category at the competition, held May 19 to 23. Singh earned first place, followed by Jose Guadalupe Ramirez Jimenez in second and Angie Balderas in third, marking a standout showing for Cal Poly.
Learning by Doing, Year-Round
The club’s success didn’t come together overnight.
“It’s a year-round club,” Singh said. “In the fall, we get new members familiar with composites and 3D printing. In January, SAMPE releases the guidelines for the competition, and we start prototyping right away.”
Each Friday, students gather in the Composites Lab to design, manufacture and test small-scale structures. The space gives them a chance to apply what they’ve learned in class, from running calculations to analyzing results. “There are hundreds of settings you can tweak on a printer,” Singh said. “We create a spreadsheet to keep track of our results.”
Cuesta College students also join those sessions through a long-standing partnership between the two campuses.
Eltahry Elghandour, a mechanical engineering professor and Cal Poly SAMPE Club adviser, founded Cuesta’s SAMPE Club in 2015, now advised by Bret Clark, and said the collaboration continues to strengthen both programs. “It’s a great example of what happens when local schools work together,” Elghandour said.
Because entries are judged on their strength-to-weight ratio, teams focus on finding the right balance between durability and efficiency. At Cal Poly, students modeled their designs in CAD, ran stress calculations and refined their geometry to reduce mass without sacrificing stability. “We tested different shapes for the Additive Manufacturing contest to see how they’d respond under compression,” Singh said. “It came down to fine-tuning every setting until the design was as strong and efficient as possible.”
By March, the group had finalized its designs. Each team’s entry was printed by SAMPE on identical machines using the same black ASA thermoplastic, ensuring that results depended entirely on creativity and precision. “It’s cool knowing everyone starts with the same material and printer,” Singh said. “What makes the difference is how you design it.”
Team spirit and results
This year, 23 Cal Poly students, along with several from Cuesta College, traveled to Indianapolis to compete, united by a shared sense of purpose.
“We watched every event together,” Singh said. “The team spirit was incredible. We were cheering for everyone.”
That energy carried through the results. In addition to sweeping the additive manufacturing category, Cal Poly earned top finishes in several other events:
- Natural Fiber Beam Competition: First place — Eliza Rosales, Yosef Torres and Yesenia Magallanes
- Carbon Fiber I-Beam Competition: Second place — Juan Rodríguez, Christopher Márquez, Rosa Acevedo, Juventino Ramirez and Juan Gómez
- Carbon Fiber I-Beam Competition: Third place — Ramirez Jimenez, Jack Bride and Humberto Salazar-Banuelos
- Fuselage Design Competition: Third place — Bride, Ramirez Jimenez and Salazar-Banuelos
“It was such a great moment,” Singh said. “We went back to the hotel and celebrated as a group. It really showed how much teamwork matters.”
Beyond the competition
For Singh, the experience connected classroom learning to real-world applications. “It’s rewarding to see how the work we do in the lab applies to industries like aerospace and automotive,” he said. “You realize the same skills we’re practicing — CAD, design, analysis and manufacturing — are the ones professionals use every day.”
The trip was supported by grants from the College of Engineering and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), which helped more students attend and compete.
With the next SAMPE competition set for Seattle, Singh said the team is already preparing. “We’re excited to bring even more students,” he said. “Every time we compete, we learn something new, and that’s what makes it so rewarding.”
To learn more about Cal Poly’s SAMPE Club or get involved, visit linktr.ee/sampecalpoly
