 | Last year’s human-powered vehicle team at the spring competition in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
(View larger image) | Latest student design team vehicle fueled by human power  ou won’t see it at the gas pump, but you will see legs pumping when “Badger Lightning” flashes by: The recumbent three-wheeler is the pride of last year’s human-powered vehicle team, which first got in gear during the summer of 2004. Guided by Assistant Professors Frank Pfefferkorn and Heidi Ploeg, the newly minted team designed and built Badger Lightning over the school year and rode it in a national competition in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in April 2005. The UW-Madison students won the admiration of other teams for their molded polycarbonate fairing and aluminum frame—one of just a handful in the competition.
This year, the team will revamp their design based on lessons learned in Tuscaloosa and construct a new vehicle from the ground up. The Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge is a student design series competition sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
PHOTO AT RIGHT: The team includes (in back) co-advisor Frank Pfefferkorn, and students (standing, from left) Jessi Sanfilippo, Rebecca Hager, Lonny Peet, Alex Hanson, Irfan Ahmed, Dusty Brunner, Paul Harder, Tyler Gabert, and (seated in vehicle) Nicole Zabel | |
