Drexel club places third in international competition
Zohaib Ahmad
Issue date: 5/15/09 Section: News
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In what took place at the New Hampshire Speedway, 29 teams from across the world, including teams from Canada, Russia and India, competed with self-designed hybrid-powered racecars.
According to Matt Sera, a senior mechanical engineering major and the mechanical captain of the team, the purpose of the event was to promote new hybrid technologies in schools.
Sera added that they were trying to show innovation by developing different designs for hybrid drive trains.
These cars were tested for acceleration, autocross and endurance in many events.
"The whole focus of the competition was performance," Matthew Janisch, senior mechanical engineering major and member of of the team, said.
According to Janisch, the competition is still new, so it is still early for schools to focus on efficiency. Drexel placed first for series drive train configuration hybrids.
The Formula Hybrid Club at Drexel started a year ago, making this the first time the University has competed in such an event.
"We were given no budget. We had a lot of people who said we couldn't do it," Josh Verdieck, a senior majoring in electrical engineering and captain of the team.
Five months before the event, the club designed and built an entire series hybrid drive train, electrical system, suspension and chassis, starting only with a bare front half of a frame.
At the event, the club placed sixth in design, seventh in marketing presentation, sixth for acceleration, third for autocross and second for endurance.
The IEEE and the SAE International sponsored the competition.
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