UA Engineering Students Win First Place at Human Powered Vehicle Challenge

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A University of Alabama mechanical engineering student team won first place at the East Coast Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, a regional competition held at the University of Florida.

The five-student team won first place in both a design competition and overall first place in the Utility Vehicle Event, sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The UA team competed against teams from Virginia Tech, Wright State University, and the University of Florida.

In the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, college teams build an aerodynamic, highly-engineered vehicle in competition with other universities. Rules specified the vehicle should be suitable for everyday transportation, such as commuting to work or school or for shopping trips. The vehicle was required to stop within 20 feet from a speed of 15 mph and to have a 25-foot turning radius.

“It is outstanding that our students did so well, especially considering this was our first year to compete,” said Dr. Steve Shepard, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

A 10 kilometer race involved multiple turns, speed bumps, and use of the vehicle’s cargo area. Students parked their vehicle in a parking space, picked up cargo – a 12 pack of soda cans – then attempted to back the vehicle out of the parking space without crossing boundaries. The UA team’s vehicle was the only one capable of using pedal power to drive in reverse.

Shepard said he was pleased the UA team could design, build and test a vehicle in only four months and win the competition with a smaller budget than the other teams.

Before going to the regional competition, the students competed on campus against other teams from UA. Two teams were selected by the faculty to compete in the ASME regional competition.

“The local competition served two purposes, it gave the students a definitive deadline for completing the class project, and it gave the team time to refine and improve their vehicle before regional competition,” said Shepard.

The students on the winning team included:

• David Hovater – senior from Russellville
• Elizabeth Jannik – senior from Hattiesburg, Miss.
• Anisa Jones – senior from Enterprise
• Henry Porter – senior from New Iberia, La.
• Raymond Kyle – junior from Lilburn, Ga.

In 1837, UA became the first university in the state to offer engineering classes and was one of the first five in the nation to do so. Today, the College of Engineering, with about 1,900 students and more than 95 faculty, is one of the three oldest continuously operating engineering programs in the country and has been fully accredited since accreditation standards were implemented in the 1930s.