The 2018 Vehicle Challenge Competition at Danfoss in Ames, Iowa was a great success bringing together ten university student teams as well as judges and sponsors from eight NFPA member companies. The Vehicle Challenge is a competition that challenges students to design and build a bicycle using fluid power. The students that participated were highly creative and innovative and learned a great deal about fluid power. For many of them, it was their first experience with it, and they excelled!
Winners in the competition included:
1st Place: Murray State University
2nd Place: Cleveland State University
3rd place: Milwaukee School of Engineering
Best Presentation: Milwaukee School of Engineering
Best Teamwork: West Virginia University
Best Workmanship: Western Michigan University
Best Reliability and Safety: Purdue
Outstanding Achievement: Western Michigan University
Sprint Race: Murray State University
Efficiency Challenge: Murray State University
Endurance Challenge: Milwaukee School of Engineering
Many thanks to the Vehicle Challenge sponsors – Danfoss, for hosting the competition for the second year in a row, SunSource and Eaton for serving as the parts suppliers, Lube-Tech for serving as the fluids supplier, and Parker Hannifin for their continued support of this program. Thanks go out to the judges of this competition as well – Jim Kaas of Iowa Fluid Power, Bill Hotchkiss of SunSource, Nathan Lord of Eaton, Brad Kramer of HUSCO, Matt Loeffler and Eric Holland of FORCE America, Jason Skarphol of HYDAC, plus Joe Budden, Travis Dillinger, and Aaron Darnell from Danfoss.
This program is a great way for industry to connect with talented, up-and-coming engineers. If you would like more information on how to get your company involved in next year’s event, or if you would like to get your local university to participate in this event, please contact me at (414) 778-3364 or lbeyer@nfpa.com.
2018 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge Teams
Like this post? Share it!
Recent Posts
Update to Regional Demand Estimates Report Now Available
The U.S. Fluid Power Regional Demand Estimates Report has been updated with 2023 estimates and is now available for download. This Excel-based report is prepared for NFPA by Oxford Economics and profiles the geographic distribution of fluid power products to end-use industries by state, including fluid power sales dollars, fluid power sales percentage, and number of…
Hear from an NCAT Student Engaged in NFPA Workforce Programs
We’re excited to share a new testimonial video from David Castro Lastor, a junior mechanical engineering student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and president of the university’s Fluid Power Club. In his video, David shares how participating in NFPA programs has shaped his academic and personal growth. Through his leadership in the…
New Episode of Fluid Power Forum: Advanced Modeling Techniques and Performance Comparisons of Electrohydraulic Systems
Today, our guest is Bruno Dupuis. Bruno is a Corporate Accounts Manager at Famic Technologies Inc., the company behind the development of Automation Studio™, a circuit design and simulation software for fluid power, electrical, robotics, process control and automation projects. He presented at NFPA’s Hydraulics Conference co-located at the 2024 iVT EXPO back in August.…