Rose-Hulman Students Pedal to High Placing in ASME's Human Powered
Vehicle Challenge
Ingenuity and pedal power were on full display as
five Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology mechanical engineering
students designed a single-rider vehicle that tied for seventh-place
honors in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Human
Powered Vehicle Challenge’s east coast regional May 5-7 in
Charlotte, N.C.
 |
| Pedal Power: Members of Rose-Hulman's
Human Powered Vehicle Development team were Lois Fairfax (in
vehicle) and (back, from left) Justin Gerretse, Tommy
Roberts, Daniel Sing and Zach Goff. The group tied for
seventh place in the recent ASME eastern regional
competition. |
In its first year of competing, Rose-Hulman was the
surprising team among the 28 competitors from colleges and
universities in the U.S., Canada, Venezuela and Taiwan. The team
placed second in the endurance race, completing 67 laps; second in
the male sprint race, in 38.4 mph; and sixth in the female sprint
race, 26.4 mph. A low-scoring performance in the design report
division hindered Rose-Hulman’s overall performance in the
competition.
“Saying we were pleasantly surprised with our
performance would be an understatement,” stated team co-leader Tommy
Roberts, a sophomore from Weston, Conn. “When we arrived, people
were skeptical if we could complete the required tasks, without
having a substantial failure. By the end, the judges were shaking
their heads every time we completed a lap (in the endurance race).”
Human powered vehicles are aerodynamic and highly
engineered for quality performance. Rose-Hulman’s eight-foot long,
two-wheeled vehicle featured a front-wheel drive mechanism, with two
chains and a nine-speed gear unit; a fabricated steel frame, with
aluminum tubing creating an aerodynamically-shaped exterior body;
and a modified handlebar control system. The driver was nestled in a
duct-tape hammock-type seat, inches above the road’s surface.
“We had a simple, but effective, design,” admitted
Daniel Sing, a sophomore from Columbus, Ohio.
The hardest part was training students to drive the
vehicle, and maintaining proper balance, while lying nearly on their
back and pedaling at a level above their head.
“It’s like re-learning how to ride a bicycle,”
states Zach Goff, a sophomore from Flower Mound, Texas.
Competition rules mandated that at least four team
members must drive the vehicle during the endurance contest. Four of
Rose-Hulman’s five team members participated in the regional.
Rose-Hulman scored just nine points (out of 40) from the design
report.
The University of Missouri-Rolla placed first
overall. Other competing teams included the University of Wisconsin,
Marquette University, Clarkson University, Iowa State University,
Rutgers University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Youngstown
State University, and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
“We were much stronger than we thought was possible
in the performance elements of the competition. And, as a first-year
competitor, we didn’t know what to expect from the design phase of
the challenge. We’ll do better next year,” Roberts said.
Other team members were Lois Fairfax, a sophomore
from Falls Church, Va.; and Justin Gerretse, a freshman from
Bourbonnais, Ill. The team’s faculty adviser is Clark Merkel.
More information about the human powered vehicle
competition is available at
www.asme.org/hpv.
