Despite Crash, Mendham Resident's Team Takes Third in Race

The Olin College Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) team recently competed in ASME's Human Powered Vehicle Competition East (ASME HPVC EAST) at Grove Street College in Grove City, Pennsylvania, taking home the 2012 Knovel Award for Design Innovation, a third place finish and placing in the top five in every event. Mendham resident Dan Kearney, a member of the Class of 2014 at Olin College, joined 21 classmates on this year's HPV team.

Fresh off a first-place finish in last year's HPV East competition, the team decided to stick with the aerodynamic shell appearance that performed so well during the 2011 event. The team, with their vehicle, titled 'Seabagel,' placed third overall out of thirty-two teams; they also took third place in the Design Event, third place in the Women's Speed Event, fifth in the Men's Speed Event, and second place in the Endurance Event. The team also won the 2012 Knovel® Award for Design Innovation for their ingenious rider variation compensation system, which allowed for quick and easy height adjustments between tall and short riders.

The squad stayed with Ben Smith during the three-day competition, where he conveniently has a lathe, mill, and welding equipment that the team used for a few last-minute modifications.

Olin ended up needing to take full advantage of Smith's resources, working on Seabagel every night. They experienced a few issues with the Human Power Vehicle's slow-speed stability system (landing gear) and rollover protection system. These corrections proved necessary; as a rider's enthusiastic pedaling during the men's speed race ripped off the bicycle's chain and would have resulted in the Human Powered Vehicle falling over if it wasn't for the adjustments to the slow-speed stability system.

Olin's HPV team may not have duplicated last year's first place standing, but it did create a great deal of buzz over the internet with a video of its HPV crashing during one of the events. The irony, though, is that even with the crash, Olin still won the heat, and the rider remained perfectly safe due to the enhanced rollover protection system. The video of the crash can be seen here.

"I love the Olin HPV team because it allows me to gain experience in mechanical engineering projects outside of courses. I also really enjoy building a vehicle for a competition, because it gives us a high goal to strive towards. Also, the team itself is an excellent group of people, and I love working with all of the people on it," said Jackie Rose, a co-leader of Olin's HPV team. "This year's vehicle, Seabagel, is definitely the best the team has produced, and I think we did phenomenally at competition. The whole team is really looking forward to next year, and I think we have a real shot at winning overall."

This year's sponsors included Kazak, who gave the Olin HPV team a large amount of carbon fiber cloth; CD-adapco, who granted the team licenses for simulations software; Landry's Bicycles for various bicycle parts; the Olin Student Academic Grant Committee; and the alumni Eamon Doyle, Casey Canfield, Jacob Izraelevitz, David Stamp, and Jacob West. The faculty advisor was Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Professor Aaron Hoover.