You are invited to attend the 2009 Human Powered Vehicle Challenge at the Tektronix campus in Beaverton May 1st – 3rd. Human Powered Vehicles are aerodynamic, highly engineered vehicles that may be for use on land, in the water, or the air. Some land-based HPV’s have achieved speeds of over 60 mph. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) sponsors the Human Powered Vehicle Competition in hopes of finding a design that can be used for everyday activities ranging from commuting to and from work to going to the grocery store.
Portland State University and the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science are hosting the ASME West Coast, 2009 Human Powered Vehicle Challenge. The competition will involve 20 or more teams from universities throughout the west, and as far away as Missouri to the east. The teams are students in engineering programs, and design and build bikes to compete in one or two of the three events:
• Sprint
• Endurance
• Utility
The competition starts with a static judging competition and safety test on Friday, May 1st. On Saturday, May 2nd, the sprint and utility competitions will be held at the Tektronix campus in Beaverton (13975 SW Karl Braun Drive), which provides a great venue that allows participants enough secured roadway to maneuver safely.
On Sunday, May 3rd, the endurance competition will also be held at the Tektronix campus.
Click here to view a slideshow from 2008 competition
Volunteers are needed for the event. Those interested should visit the event website or contact Melissa Scholl via email or by phone at 503-725-4291.
Want to see what it looks like to be the World’s fastest cyclist? It’s on YouTube. (Thanks to Gabriel for the link!)
This is a pretty neat event to go check out, even if you ain’t into the racing, just nerding out on the bikes is way fun! HPVs go a lot faster than 60mph though, Sam Whittingham just set the record @ 81mph!
Edit: Um well, posting links to Sam’s accomplishments marked this msg as spam, so I guess you’ll just have to google him…
Let’s see if I can add a link to Sam’s accomplishments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlUPjlLFzm0
Slight correction/clarification:
The static event on May 1 will be at the PSU campus. The dynamic events (sprint, utility, and endurance) are on the Tek campus on May 2nd and 3rd.
The static event involves safety tests, presentations by the competing teams, and displays of the bikes in their pre-competition shiny-ness. The bikes tend to end up with road rash, especially after the sprint.
Thanks, Scott, for helping spread the word.