SUNY Bearcat Motorsports wins national Formula Hybrid 2016, other cars compete
A team of 13 students from the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University and Broome Community College known as SUNY Bearcat Motorsports won the Electric Division of the national Formula Hybrid 2016 Competition at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. on May 5.
The competition is part of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series held throughout the summer.
The formula-style electric racecar topped dozens of other collegiate creations from across America including the University of Michigan, Princeton and the Rochester Institute of Technology. The team won events such as acceleration (75 meters in 6.207 seconds from a standing start) and autocross (agility course) on the way to the title.
“The most rewarding part of this project was going to competition and making it through the technical inspections. There is somewhere around a 25 percent passing rate for getting through the technical inspections,” said Binghamton senior and Formula Hybrid team lead Jordan Billet. “Having the opportunity to go to the competition and work side by side by some of the smartest people coming out of engineering schools was the most rewarding part. We had a lot of things go our way and we were able to come home with a victory which was icing on the cake.”
The competition, founded and run by the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth since 2006, requires teams to create a formula-style electric or plug-in hybrid racecar and compete in a series of events including acceleration and autocross along with braking, tilt, and endurance.
The project started at the beginning of the academic year and included collaborative design, construction, funding and marketing efforts by the team of Binghamton students Billet, Alexander Linkoff, Werner Naegeli, Jeffrey Mena, Kevin Osman, Christopher Rumaczyk, Eric Hackel, Yogesh S Chettiar, Robert Dean, Jessie Linamen and Christian M Lezama plus SUNY Broome’s Michael DiGiacomo and Taras Stets.
Professor Bruce Murray from the Binghamton mechanical engineering department and Assistant Professor Gary C. DiGiacomo from the Broome Community College department of engineering technologies are advisors of the Formula Hybrid project.
Funding support for the cars came from the Watson School, corporate sponsorships for senior design projects and donations of equipment, time, and/or money from local companies, parents and friends.
Supermileage, Baja cars compete in summer competitions
Two cars built by teams of Binghamton University engineering students took on dozens from around the country in the annual Society of Automotive Engineers Supermileage and Baja competitions in June.
Competing under “Bearcat Motorsports,” the Supermileage team finished seventh overall in the 37th annual competition at the Eaton Proving Grounds in Marshall, Michigan.
The car - which was powered by a small four-cycle engine - was one of the first four to clear technical inspections and received the “Best Design Execution” award. As the vehicle ran a specified course, it attempted to have the highest combined kilometers per liter (miles per gallon) rating while also meeting certain design points.
“The Supermileage competition provides engineering and technology students with a challenging design project that involves the development and construction of a single-person, fuel-efficient vehicle,” according to the official SAE website. “Students have the opportunity to set a world fuel economy record and increase public awareness of fuel economy.”
The third annual SAE Baja car competition was held at the Rochester Institute of Technology this on June 9-12. The University of Michigan won the overall title, host RIT was second, and Centro Universitario Da FEI from Brazil was third.
The Binghamton Baja car did not win any individual awards, but did pass technical inspections which often disqualify teams.
“Baja SAE consists of competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges,” the official SAE website says. “Engineering students are tasked to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain.”
The 2011 Binghamton team came back to support the current engineers during the competition’s dynamic (moving) events at the the Hogback Hill Motocross track.
“It was great to see the 2011 team return to the competition and support the team through both days,” said faculty advisor David Pavlick. “This gave the team a little more motivation to get the car through the competition.”
“The best part about these projects is the teams did a nice job for the entire year and now there is a clearly defined scope of work that needs to be addressed for next year,” Pavlick said. “It wasn’t just, ‘We need a new car.’ Next year’s teams may decide to go that way but they will have a very good starting point. These projects are growing every year and they wouldn’t be if the University wasn’t behind them.”
Students that worked on past projects have moved on to work for car companies such as Ford.