The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) Vehicle Challenge kicked off this September with 12 teams from universities across the United States participating. The teams just recently completed their individual Midway Review calls in which they were judged on their design objectives, vehicle design, fluid power circuit design, selection of hardware, results and incorporation of analyses, and stage of their prototype built to date. In the upcoming weeks, they will begin building and testing their prototypes to eventually compete in the Final Competition, which will take place on April 10-14, 2018, at Danfoss in Ames, IA. At this competition, the teams will give a final presentation on their vehicle construction, testing and lessons learned. They will also compete in three races (Sprint, Efficiency and Endurance).
This STEM competition is based on an initiative pioneered by Parker Hannifin Corporation and challenges college engineering students to redesign a traditional bicycle using hydraulics as the mode of power transmission. By combining this unlikely pair, the Vehicle Challenge will create an environment that results in uncommon connections and breakthroughs while supporting learning and the growth of fluid power industry knowledge.
NFPA thanks all of this year's sponsors.
- Danfoss
- Parker Hannifin
- SunSource
- Eaton
- Lube-Tech
Vehicle Challenge Teams:
- Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo
- Cleveland State University
- Iowa State University
- Purdue University
- Milwaukee School of Engineering
- Murray State University
- University of Akron
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
- University of Minnesota
- Western Michigan University
- West Virginia Tech
