10 kW
All,
I used to read here frequently, but the last couple of months have been hectic. I was working with a group of engineering undergraduate students to analyze the sustainability impacts of various forms of personal transportation for commuting, one being a BugE electric car. The students built one of these and tested it. We had plans to build a hydrogen fuel cell version of the car, but we were not able to get the fuel cell in time due primarily to issues with the vendor supplying the fuel cell. The competition is finally over. You can see our photos and some video at the enclosed links. In the interest of time, I am simply pasting the text from an email I sent to our Chancellor and Dean below; we are with the University of Tennessee's College of Engineering. The links and some description of the project are below. If anyone wants a copy of the final report, let me know. I will warn you that it is not as polished as I would like, but sometimes you take what you can get. This was 100% a student project and they did nearly all the work, even the report. Email follows:
I was privileged to help advise an interdiscilinary team of undergraduate engineering students who were able to get funding from the EPA for a small design project. A week and a half ago, they traveled to DC to defend their project and propose a follow-on project at the recent EPA National Sustainable Design Expo in DC on the National Mall in front of the Capitol building. There were 11 UT COE students attending, along with myself. The entire roster of team members for the project are listed below. The name of the project was "Reducing the Environmental Impact of Getting to Work". Starting with a commercially available chassis and body kit, the students built a small, one person electric vehicle for commuting up to 30 miles round trip and also designed a fuel cell version of the vehicle. They road-tested the vehicle on a closed circuit for two weeks and then performed a sustainability analysis of the two small vehicles, comparing them to two other commuting options, a Toyota Camry and a two-person Smart Car.
There were 55 university teams from all over the US competing for additional funding to extend their projects. The team earned an Honorable Mention award. The web page for the EPA P3 program (who provided the funding for the initial project) is:
http://www.epa.gov/P3/
There is also a composite video that features our team at the Expo along with others at:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer/events/news/2011/04_18_11_feature.html
You can see our photo from the award ceremony and a team picture from the National Mall at:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/project_websites/2011/2011awardwinners.html
You will need to scroll down the alphabetical list to University of Tennessee.
We have also been featured in a small video on planetforward.com. It can be seen at:
http://planetforward.org/idea/students-from-the-university-of-tennessee-share-their-electric-vehicle-p3-project/
It was a great opportunity to show what undergraduates at UT are doing in the area of energy and sustainable transportation. The Expo was very well-attended and hundreds of DC area scientists, research administrators, and elected officials as well as the general public were able to see our project.
End of pasted email.
I would like to acknowledge all the useful information I was able to get from this forum. I found it quite helpful for the project.
I used to read here frequently, but the last couple of months have been hectic. I was working with a group of engineering undergraduate students to analyze the sustainability impacts of various forms of personal transportation for commuting, one being a BugE electric car. The students built one of these and tested it. We had plans to build a hydrogen fuel cell version of the car, but we were not able to get the fuel cell in time due primarily to issues with the vendor supplying the fuel cell. The competition is finally over. You can see our photos and some video at the enclosed links. In the interest of time, I am simply pasting the text from an email I sent to our Chancellor and Dean below; we are with the University of Tennessee's College of Engineering. The links and some description of the project are below. If anyone wants a copy of the final report, let me know. I will warn you that it is not as polished as I would like, but sometimes you take what you can get. This was 100% a student project and they did nearly all the work, even the report. Email follows:
I was privileged to help advise an interdiscilinary team of undergraduate engineering students who were able to get funding from the EPA for a small design project. A week and a half ago, they traveled to DC to defend their project and propose a follow-on project at the recent EPA National Sustainable Design Expo in DC on the National Mall in front of the Capitol building. There were 11 UT COE students attending, along with myself. The entire roster of team members for the project are listed below. The name of the project was "Reducing the Environmental Impact of Getting to Work". Starting with a commercially available chassis and body kit, the students built a small, one person electric vehicle for commuting up to 30 miles round trip and also designed a fuel cell version of the vehicle. They road-tested the vehicle on a closed circuit for two weeks and then performed a sustainability analysis of the two small vehicles, comparing them to two other commuting options, a Toyota Camry and a two-person Smart Car.
There were 55 university teams from all over the US competing for additional funding to extend their projects. The team earned an Honorable Mention award. The web page for the EPA P3 program (who provided the funding for the initial project) is:
http://www.epa.gov/P3/
There is also a composite video that features our team at the Expo along with others at:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer/events/news/2011/04_18_11_feature.html
You can see our photo from the award ceremony and a team picture from the National Mall at:
http://www.epa.gov/ncer/p3/project_websites/2011/2011awardwinners.html
You will need to scroll down the alphabetical list to University of Tennessee.
We have also been featured in a small video on planetforward.com. It can be seen at:
http://planetforward.org/idea/students-from-the-university-of-tennessee-share-their-electric-vehicle-p3-project/
It was a great opportunity to show what undergraduates at UT are doing in the area of energy and sustainable transportation. The Expo was very well-attended and hundreds of DC area scientists, research administrators, and elected officials as well as the general public were able to see our project.
End of pasted email.
I would like to acknowledge all the useful information I was able to get from this forum. I found it quite helpful for the project.
