On April 18th, 2009 the Institute for Affordable Transportation held its 9th annual BUV competition in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Teams of engineering students from Arkansas, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, and Indiana came together after months of perfecting designs to fit the specifications of this year’s competition. The students were required to build a vehicle with features such as biodiesel fuel, hybrid power, 100% hand controls (for amputees) and a trailer in tow.
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9th Annual Student Design Competition |
Since the Institute for Affordable Transportation was founded in 2000, the annual student competition has provided an opportunity for the perfection of the BUV design. The concept of a BUV is to provide low-cost, high-quality transportation to communities in developing nations – providing them with a tool to improve their work & daily lives. Because the BUV must account for a lack of infrastructure, the vehicles must pass a variety of tests during the competition including an obstacle course, mud pit, mogul field, and endurance track.
Each team also plans an oral report aimed towards the judges and spectators. In the reports, students discuss the planning, building, and testing processes that each BUV went through prior to the competition. Many of the students work on the BUV as a senior capstone project at the end of their engineering degree.
Austin Bello, a student at Purdue University was a member of the design team under the direction of Professor John Lumkes. Bello’s eyes stayed focused on his team’s vehicle during the agility test as he spoke about the importance of the competition. “We’ve been working out a lot of design issues up to the last minute, and I think a lot of us were worried it wasn’t going to get finished,” Bello said. “Now, seeing our BUV in action – it was all worth it.” Bello will be among a group of students to travel with Professor Lumkes to Cameroon, Africa in May. As a part of Purdue’s Global Engineering Program, the students will visit ACREST, an NGO in Cameroon that wants to launch a BUV factory.
Some of the teams donated their completed vehicles to ministries throughout the world. For example, Northern Illinois University’s BUV is bound for Kenya, and Purdue will send their vehicle to Cameroon.
Alan Hill, a senior at John Brown University in Arkansas, and member of this year’s winning team recently spoke of the deeper meaning he found through his participation with the competition.