South Range Elementary Visit

When you ask a Kindergartner to design a hybrid vehicle, you get a much different response than from asking a Michigan Tech student. Dr. John Beard, advisor to the Michigan Tech EcoCAR team, visited Mrs. Beard's Kindergarten class at South Range Elementary School in Adams Township to gain a fresh perspective on new designs for the EcoCAR Challenge.

Dr. Beard read "If I Built A Car" by Chris Can Dusen to the class of 22 students. The class was silent as the listened intently to the limitless possibilities of designing your own vehicle. They passed around models of a racecar, ambulance, fire truck, SUV, hybrids, and cars. When Dr. Beard asked the class, "What do you want on your car?" all 22 students tried to talk at once.

The students then had the opportunity to draw what their vehicles would look like. There were a wide variety of ideas, including machine guns, hats, leaves, swimming pools, candy dispensers, wings, and fires. Along with the drawings, the students wrote short descriptions of their vehicles and shared them with the class. To conclude the visit, Dr. Beard described how the EcoCAR team was working to build a vehicle that they designed, and that some day the Kindergarten students would be able to do the same.

Dr. Beard commented, "Teaching non-linear ordinary differential equations is much easier than teaching five-year-olds, especially when you ask 'any questions?' or 'what do you want to see on your car?'"

What a busy week!

This past week was jam-packed with events for the Michigan Tech EcoCAR Team. The working pace was grueling to start out the week, preparing for our GM Mentor's arrival on Wednesday. The goal was to have the vehicle up and running for his visit. The team was diligent, with most members working until 3am Thursday morning to get the EcoCAR started. Unfortunately, technical difficulties proved too much to overcome.

Thursday brought the Undergraduate Student Expo, providing the team an opportunity to showcase the work that has been completed this year. There were posters displayed and presentations given by most of the Enterprise and Senior Design teams on campus.

Our interview with K-BEAR 102.3 aired today, highlighting the team's progress since the last interview in the fall. We are getting read for an exciting competition, and hope the public will continue to follow our progress.

With only a few weeks until the EcoCAR ships out to Yuma, the team is going to be extremely busy. We are extremely confident in our current position, and will continue to keep everyone posted on our progress!

Enterprise Recruitment Expo

Yesterday, the EcoCAR Team attended the Enterprise Recruitment Expo on campus. Traffic was a little slow, but many students showed interest in joining the team next semester. Saturday shop hours are open, allowing anyone to come and visit to see the car up close and to meet the members of the team.

MTU Brings Alternative Energy to Middle School

This morning, three members the Michigan Tech EcoCAR team took a trip up the hill to Houghton Middle School. The goal: teaching students about alternative energy vehicles. An unusually cold day forced activities to stay inside, but that didn't ruin the fun. Mr. Peters' 7th Grade Technology Class had the opportunity to build and test model fuel cell vehicles while learning about the advantages and disadvantages of the different energy sources. The overall experience was beneficial for both the Houghton Middle School and the Michigan Tech students. The team is planning on visiting Mr. Peters' class again next marking period.

Spring break gave the Michigan Tech EcoCAR team the opportunity to work uninterrupted on the car for the better part of 10 days. Long hours in the lab and in the shop yielded unprecedented productivity. The GM donated vehicle is nearing driving condition once again. Although some technical issues came up throughout the week, the car should be running by the end of the week. Thanks to the long hours from everyone on the team, Michigan Tech will be a real contender at the competition this summer in Yuma.

New members, new lab

The Michigan Tech EcoCAR Team is starting out fresh this semester. We have four new members joining the team. The new members bring great skills to the team that will ensure our success this semester. We are also fortunate to move into a new lab, complete with a window. The new lab provides more space to move around, adequate power for the HIL computer and an all around better working atmosphere. The new lab is great, but hopefully we will be spending more hands-on time in the shop this semester!

Info Session

Our on campus outreach this past week was a huge success! Students from many years and majors were present to learn about our program. We started with a brief presentation by Brandon Davis about our EcoCAR Enterprise and the EcoCAR competition. The session concluded with a display of our vehicle and test drives around campus. This was a great opportunity to raise awareness of hybrid vehicle technology and to get more students involved.