Ware Lab will be getting a similar charging station as well. Stay tuned for more on this!
| Autonomous Arial Vehicle | $700.00 |
| Autonomous Underwater Vehicle | $1,000.00 |
| BAJA SAE | $3,000.00 |
| Battery Operated Land Transport | $1,200.00 |
| Design Build Fly | $1,000.00 |
| Formula SAE | $3,000.00 |
| Hybrid Electric Vehicle | $3,000.00 |
| Human Powered Sub | $1,200.00 |
| Human Powered Vehicle | $400.00 |
| Impact | $450.00 |
| Lunabotics | $450.00 |
| SAE Aero Design - East | $400.00 |
| SAE Aero Design - West | $400.00 |
| AISC/ASCE Steel Bridge | $1000 |
| NASA University Student Launch Initiative | $400 |
These funds, totaling $17,600, go to team material/equipment costs and travel to competitions throughout the United States and the world!
Brett Keys (left) and Preston Pionk (right) with Mr. Victor Mendez, Chief Administrator of FHWA during AISC Pre-SteelDay.
WASHINGTON, DC., Sept. 22, 23, 2011 – As concerns over the nation’s bridge infrastructure make daily headlines, students from the Virginia Tech AISC Steel Bridge team traveled to our nation’s capital last week to demonstrate the latest innovations in lightweight, accelerated bridge construction. Brett Keys and Preston Pionk, Virginia Tech CEE student team leaders for the AISC (American Institute of Steel Construction) Steel Bridge project, traveled to Washington DC to participate in the AISC’s Steel Day. Day one of the event, Pre-SteelDay, was held at the US Department of Transportation’s new headquarters in downtown DC. In attendance was the chief administrator for the FHWA, Victor Mendez, along with students and faculty from the Howard University steel bridge team. In the department’s large central atrium Virginia Tech and Howard University team members assembled their entire 20 foot long bridges from pre-assembled three foot segments with Mr. Mendez lending a hand at times! Also in attendance were DOT/FHWA and AISC officials and employees. Day two, SteelDay, involved travel to a local iron worker training facility in McClean, Virginia where the VT team constructed their bridge again and spoke with iron works, steel fabricators, and structural engineers and attended workshops and lectures on proper steel handling.
SteelDay, sponsored by AISC and the NSBA (National Steel Bridge Alliance) is the largest educational and networking event in the US steel industry and takes place throughout the country each September. Over 9000 architects, engineers, contractors, and iron workers take time out of busy schedules to participate in 180 registered events by visiting a structural steel related facility. The Virginia Tech AISC Steel Bridge team, housed at the Joseph F. Ware, Jr. Advanced Engineering Lab on the main campus, participates in regional and international competitions each year. Team entries are judged on strength, stiffness, economy, construction speed, and aesthetics. Team members are mainly from the Via Department of civil and environmental engineering but students from other engineering majors participate as well. The current competition bridge is on display in the Steel Bridge project bay during the Ware Lab’s operating hours.
Additional information on the event can be found at:
http://www.greengarageblog.org
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doeavtc/
As a Sponsor, Supporter, Friend, Organizer, and/or Supplier for the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech I would like to thank you for your help as the team wraps up the final stage of EcoCAR: the NeXt challenge www.ecocarchallenge.org in Washington DC. Tomorrow night is our final awards ceremony to be held at the Library of Congress which we hope to represent Virginia Tech well at. EcoCAR organizers are posting information regularly on the Green Garage website, http://www.greengarageblog.org/ so check out the site for more information on how the competition is progressing. Photos can be seen on the flicker site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/doeavtc/) including photos of Secretary of Energy Chu and I this morning.
The competition vehicle, a Chevy EcoCAR nicknamed the VTREX (Virginia Tech Range Extended Crossover), did very well at GM’s proving grounds in Milford, MI over the past week. We were one of 6 teams to complete all of the dynamic events, which is something we are very proud of. The vehicle had a 0-60 mph time 6.68 s and 3.12 s 50-70 mph passing acceleration. Both of these times were much faster than the stock vehicle, but just slower than the Mississippi State vehicle. We have the shortest braking distance from 60-0 mph in 40.2 m which is 3 m shorter than the stock Vue XE as tested on the track. The results have not been released to the team but the feedback from the GM engineers running the drive quality tests were nothing but praise. The vehicle did well in the autocross event, with co-team leader Patrick Walsh posting a student driver best time, beating the GM drivers time for a second year in a row. Based on fuel economy and electrical consumption data we collected we estimate a utility factor weighted fuel economy of 82 mpgge, which came from having a 54 mile EV only range. The vehicle completed all of the desired idle starts using the belted alternator starter (BAS) motor during the 100 mile drive with no problems. The consumer acceptable features like the pedestrian alert system, rear view camera system, and custom driver display were a big hit at the static consumer acceptability presentation. As we learn more about awards and final overall placement I will let you all know how the team does.
Thank you for your support of the Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team of Virginia Tech during the EcoCAR competition. I would encourage you all to consider assisting the team in the future as we take on our next project, re-engineering a Chevy Malibu for EcoCAR2: plugging in to the future http://www.ecocar2.org/ along with 15 other universities. We will again need the support of suppliers to ensure the quality of the EcoCAR2 vehicle exceeds the VTREX, which will be hard to achieve. As always you can follow the team at www.me.vt.edu/hevt which will direct you to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other competition sites. I will be starting work at General Motors with a few other team members this summer, and will be replaced as team leader by Jesse Alley (jalley24@vt.edu or hevt@vt.edu). Please send all emails regarding support of the team for EcoCAR2 his way.
Thanks!
Lynn R. Gantt
Team Leader HEVT
Specifically, the Virginia Tech team earned…
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