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UW Madison Wins Electric Division of Clean Snowmobile Challenge |
Source: Michigan Tech Media Relations
(3/16/2008)
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 Hosted by Michigan Technological University, the Clean Snowmobile Challenge is the Society of Automotive Engineers' newest collegiate design competition. Engineering students from participating schools take a stock snowmobile and reengineer it to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or improving performance.
UW Madison team leader Nick Rakovec credited excellent advising and teamwork for the battery-powered sled’s success. It uses a Delphi electric motor (once used by General Motors in its EV1 electric car) powered by 84 28-volt lithium-ion batteries and is capable of running up to 20 miles on a single charge. “We can charge these batteries in half an hour,” Rakovec said. “If the NSF takes it to Greenland, they’ll be able to recharge it quickly.”
The team has earned a chance to send members and possibly its winning sled to the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station in Greenland. Arctic researchers use electric vehicles when traveling across the ice, since any emissions can contaminate samples taken from ice and the air. “It’s an incredible machine,” said Tracy Dahl of Polar Field Services, representing NSF. “The thing rips.”
UW Madison’s zero emissions sled also nabbed the Society of Automotive Engineers Award for Best Design in its class, first place for the Kreider and Associates Award for Best Paper, the DENSO Award for Best Ride, the Veco Polar Resource Range Event Award, and the Caterpillar Corporation Innovation Award.
Another electric division winner was The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology zero emissions sled, which earned the Keweenaw Research Center Draw Bar Pull Award.
Society of Automotive Engineers President Thomas Ryan described the Clean Snowmobile Challenge as a great opportunity for young engineers to learn the skills necessary to succeed in their careers. And he also praised their present efforts. “I rode a couple of your sleds, and I was impressed. You are leading us down the road that will get us back into Yellowstone.”
The challenge began following a ban on snowmobiling in Yellowstone due to the machines’ noise and emissions. “What you have done is prove solutions are possible,” said Jim Evanoff, an environmental protection specialist at Yellowstone National Park. “We support fully what you are doing.”
The Clean Snowmobile Challenge is sponsored at Michigan Tech by the Keweenaw Research Center and the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics.
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Monday, February 08, 2010