Home : Volume 31 : Fall 2004 :
Canoe and truck teams win national titles

UW-Madison selected for new vehicle competition UW-Madison has been selected to take part in a new student vehicle competition that will take the place of the national FutureTruck competition. (The College of Engineering's FutureTruck team won the FutureTruck competition the past three years.) The new contest, dubbed "Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility," is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Argonne National Lab and General Motors. It will pit 17 university teams against each other in re-engineering a Chevrolet Equinox compact sport-utility vehicle. Teams will compete to reduce the SUV's energy consumption, decrease emissions and maintain the vehicle's performance and utility features. The first year of the competition will focus on modeling, simulation and testing of the powertrain and vehicle subsystems. Work on the SUV will begin this fall, with the competition slated for June 2005.

For the second year in a row, both the College of Engineering's FutureTruck and Concrete Canoe teams brought home national championships.

The FutureTruck team won its third consecutive national championship, easily beating 14 other universities at the FutureTruck Competition held in Michigan. The competition was held in June at the testing grounds of the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. The team, composed of College of Engineering undergraduates, scored 924 points out of a possible 1,000, easily outdistancing runner-up Penn State University, which finished with 802 points.

The Concrete Canoe team also successfully defended its national championship, triumphing over 21 other universities in three days of competition in June near Washington, D.C. The canoe, dubbed "Rock Solid," followed in the footsteps of the "Chequamegon," which won last year's competition in Philadelphia. The "Rock Solid" canoe won a regional competition held in Milwaukee in May.

FutureTruck Team 2004 (30K JPG)

The FutureTruck competition pits teams of students who spent a year modifying a sport-utility vehicle supplied by Ford. The teams work to reduce fuel emissions and increase fuel economy, while maintaining the characteristics of an SUV—such as towing ability, safety and storage — that consumers want. Teams also compete in off-road races, handling, braking, workmanship, acceleration, design and technical reports.

UW-Madison's team finished first in the categories of on-road fuel efficiency, lowest greenhouse gas emissions, best consumer acceptability, and best oral presentation. The team also won third place for most innovative use of electronics.

Concrete Canoe 2004 (28K JPG)

The Concrete Canoe team won an unexpected national championship last year after never having finished higher than fifth. This year's team thought it had a good chance to win, but the triumph was still surprising to team members.

"It was pretty unbelievable," says Linda Vanevenhoven, a civil engineering major and paddler for the team, of the second national championship in a row. "You hoped for it, but it was unexpected. It was pretty sweet."

The competition challenges student teams to design, build and race canoes made primarily out of concrete. Student teams not only race the canoes during the competition, but must also present academic papers on their material and construction methods, make a business presentation detailing their canoe design, and pass a flotation test to prove the boat can float horizontally when filled with water.

The canoe team accomplished its victory with top grades in each of the four major categories — second place for the business presentation and final canoe product, and third place overall in the races and academic paper. It was the only team to finish in the top five in each of the major categories.

In each of the individual races — men's and women's sprints, men's and women's endurance, and the co-ed sprint — the team finished fourth or higher. As a highlight, the women's sprint team, which included paddlers Vanevenhoven and Amy Roth, finished first, beating longtime canoe heavyweight Clemson University in that race for the first time in several years.

The UW-Madison team spent the better part of the 2003-04 academic year designing, testing and building its canoe in the newly constructed Engineering Centers Building. The finished canoe weighed 180 pounds and measured 4 inches short of 22 feet. Students Shannon Pierce and Preston Tokheim led this year's team.

Along with the win comes a first-place trophy and $5,000. A Canadian school, Universite Laval, finished second, followed by the University of Alabama at Huntsville. The American Society of Civil Engineers and Master Builders, Inc., a manufacturer of materials used in the concrete industry, sponsor the canoe competition.

Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu

Date last modified: Friday, 10-Jun-2005 15:29:43 CDT
Date created: 29-Nov-2004

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