In this image from our archive, an engineering student in the former “Parker’s Chainless Challenge” (now the NFPA Vehicle Challenge) struggles to pedal his bike across the finish line.
The NFPA Vehicle Challenge kicked off this September with twelve teams from universities across the United States participating. The teams just recently completed their individual Midway Review calls in which they were judged on their design objectives, vehicle design, fluid power circuit design, selection of hardware, results and incorporation of analyses, and stage of their prototype built to date.
In the upcoming weeks, they will begin building and testing their prototypes to eventually compete in the Final Competition, which will take place on April 10-14, 2018, at Danfoss in Ames, Iowa. At this competition, the teams will give a final presentation on their vehicle construction, testing and lessons learned. They will also compete in three races (Sprint, Efficiency and Endurance).
This STEM competition is based on an initiative pioneered by Parker Hannifin Corp. and challenges college engineering students to redesign a traditional bicycle using hydraulics as the mode of power transmission. By combining this unlikely pair, the Vehicle Challenge will create an environment that results in uncommon connections and breakthroughs while supporting learning and the growth of fluid power industry knowledge.
The NFPA needs industry to become involved in the NFPA Vehicle Challenge as judges and mentors. Meeting and working with the amazing students who participate in this program is a great recruitment opportunity that we reserve for donors to NFPA’s Pascal Society. Without the financial support of industry, we could not make this program a reality. For more information on getting involved, please contact Eric Lanke at elanke@nfpa.com.
If you are a university that would like to participate in the NFPA Vehicle Challenge in 2018-19, please contact Lynn Beyer at lbeyer@nfpa.com or (414) 778-3364.
Sponsors this year are:
Danfoss
Parker Hannifin
SunSource
Eaton
Lube-Tech
Vehicle Challenge teams are:
Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo
Cleveland State University
Iowa State University
Purdue University
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Murray State University
University of Akron
University of Cincinnati
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Minnesota
Western Michigan University
West Virginia Tech
National Fluid Power Association
www.nfpa.com
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