Electric Auto Shop

EAS speaks to Doug Fraser, Present Senior Research Engineer, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and Founder and Director of Formula Hybrid competition.Engineering students across the country are losing sleep and slacking on their other subjects. So says the founder of Formula Hybrid, Doug Fraser, who came on the show to give us a preview of what to expect in this year’s competition. Formula Hybrid takes place April 27 – 30, 2015 at the new Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.  Founded and run by the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth since 2006, Formula Hybrid takes place each spring at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, NH. The competition is part of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series and is regarded as the most complex and dynamic of the series. Formula Hybrid, according to the website, is an interdisciplinary design and engineering challenge for undergraduate and graduate university students. They must collaboratively design and build a formula-style electric or plug-in hybrid racecar and compete in a series of events. This educational competition emphasizes drivetrain innovation and fuel efficiency in a high-performance application. A long-time teacher at the Thayer School of Engineering, Fraser says he started Formula Hybrid in 2006 when his team discovered the Formula SAE competition would not be allowing hybrids.  Now there are over 20 teams entered, although it sounds like a couple teams have withdrawn before even making it to the racetrack.  Doug says Formula Hybrid is the most complex of the Collegiate Design Series. “We’re talking mechanical systems plugging into electrical systems, and then we’re talking about blending these systems.  So it takes some real skill and students with a lot of different backgrounds to pull it all together…  They start to develop a health respect.” Fraser grew up building racing vehicles, owned his own engine shop and enjoys racing his vintage 1966 Jaguar E-type.  He particularly enjoys watching how students manage the endurance portion of the competition traveling 44 kilometers on a fixed amount of energy. “Every team starts the endurance event with exactly the same amount of energy onboard the vehicle, 35.5 megajoules … so if the team did absolutely everything right, they run out of fuel going over the finish line.  And we’ve had that happen.” Thanks to Amy Keeler for arranging the interview with Doug.  Amy is the Managing Coordinator for the competition and talked about a new event in the competition involving Project Management.  She also talked about how they added more mentors from industry to provide one-on-one training.  So competing in Formula Hybrid seems to be a great career path for students who participate, and we thank the organizers for coming on the program.

EAS returns from the Educating for Careers Conference in Sacramento.

Talking Shop with IIT Motorsports’ Charles Currier We’re grateful to be joined on the podcast by Charles Currier from IIT Motorsports. Charles is the outspoken driver and treasurer for the student team from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He appeared on radio and TV in February with the IIT electric race car on display at the Chicago Auto Show. Charles talks about building an all-new electric race car to enter into two competitions coming up this school year as part of the Formula SAE competition. The first will be Formula Hybrid April 18 at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The second is Formula SAE Electric June 18 at Lincoln Airpark in Nebraska. Charles said the Thunder Hawk is amazingly light and powerful, weighing under 600 pounds and able to accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds. The team is also testing new lightweight carbon fiber body materials and got a big boost from the media exposure at the auto show by meeting a new supplier. Learn more about IIT Motorsports at its website: http://fsae.iit.edu/

Thanks for tuning into our first Podcast of 2014. Mike and Alex talk about the latest progress of Electric Auto Shop. The recent introduction of a new ChassisLab AC course for students brought up a short discussion on the difference between AC and DC motors for electric cars. There is a video online that gives details about the new course curriculum. One theme that we kept coming back to was how Electric Auto Shop is inspiring students to learn about math and science, in addition to building more efficient cars. This seems to run against a trend reported in the news that the auto industry is concerned that the rate of U.S. auto sales to 18-to-34-year-old buyers declined to 11 percent in April 2012, down from 17 percent for the same age group in April 2007, before the recession, according to Southfield, Michigan-based R.L. Polk & Co. The fear is that financially pressed young people who connect online instead of in person could hold down peak auto demand by 2 million units each year. Obviously green technologies and alternative fuels are a way of continuing to engage young people with car culture. Electric, hybrid and other alternative fueled vehicles are inspiring important competitions around the world that fuel the dreams of students. For example, this week there are student vehicle competitions in the Philippines and in Abu Dhabi. Electric Auto Shop is continuing to do what it can to reach more students. Recently they brought the Switch EV to San Marin High School. We invite schools to contact us about using electric cars and other vehicles to inspire their students. Mike, the founder of Electric Auto Shop, will be giving a presentation during the Educating for Careers Conference March 2-4 at the Sacramento Convention Center. Come see us!San Marin High School Videoo https://www.facebook.com/michaeljosephmack/posts/10203158323341747?notif_t=story_reshare- Declining Car Culture Among Millenialso http://marylandev.org/declining-car-culture-among-millenials/- Abu Dhabi: GCC hybrid-electric Challengeo http://www.thenational.ae/uae/environment/no-need-for-speed-in-gcc-hybrid-electric-challenge- Manila Challenge: Can Fuel-Efficient Cars Go the Distance?o http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2014/02/05/manila-challenge-can-fuel-efficient-cars-go-the-distance/- Ohio State University Goal of 400 MPHo http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/buckeye-bullet-electric-vehicle-will-go-400mph/

In this week's episode we talk to students Jake, Nick, Jesus and William at Tustin HS. They tell us about projects they're working on and share what they like most about engineering class, their roles and what's difficult. Finally, they discuss future goals and jobs they hope to pursue.Tustin High School’s T-Tech Motorsports won 2nd place overall in UC Irvine’s Energy Invitational, part of the California Challenge at the Dept. of Energy’s Solar Decathlon & Expo.Instructor Ed Hernandez describes the history of Tustin High School Engineering/Design Academy, how they started with EVs, racing and energy competition.Mr. Hernandez and his class also discuss tools and equipment and safety measures for working on EVs.Some of the current projects the class is working on include:Switch & Racer8 electric vehiclesApp for high schoolShop botHovercraftDunk tankBackpack Amp Guitar ampArticle in the Orange County Register:http://www.ocregister.com/articles/science-381363-students-world.html