Rose-Hulman Named the Overall Winner at ASMEs HPVC West

Rose-Hulman Named the Overall Winner at ASMEs HPVC West Rose-Hulman Named the Overall Winner at ASMEs HPVC West Rose-Hulman Named the Overall Winner at ASMEs HPVC WestRose-Hulman Institute of Technology was the overall winner of the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge West in San Jose, Calif. The kollektivs entry is shown here during the endurance event, in which the university placed fourth. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Ind.) rode its way to a big schliff at the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge West (HPVC West), taking top honors as the overall winner of the event as well as placing first in the events design and innovation categories. The teams representing Northern Arizona University and Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri ST) placed second and third overall at the competition, which took place from April 25-27 in San Jose, Calif. The HPVC West event was the second ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge to be held in April, followin g HPVC East, which was held two weeks earlier in Orlando, Fla. (Read more about HPVC East here.) kollektiv members from Missouri S&T keep pace with their vehicle during the speed event on Saturday. The team, which took third place overall at HPVC West, finished second in the mens sprint and third in the womens sprint. Twenty-six student teams from universities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and India entered their pedal-powered prototypes in HPVC West. Hosted by the ASME Santa Clara Valley Section and Santa Clara University, HPVC West was the third HPVC competition that ASME has staged so far this year, following the event in Florida earlier in April and an HPVC India competition that was held in January. A fourth competition, HPVC Latin America, is slated for Mexico City in October. In addition to the design and innovation evaluations, HPVC West consisted of three road races - two separate mens and womens sprints and an endurance event. The Universit y of Nevada, Reno finished first in the mens sprint, followed by the teams from Missouri ST and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Northern Arizona University took the top spot in the womens sprint race, with California State University, Fresno placing second and Missouri ST in third place. The team from University of California, Berkeley (foreground) withdrew from the competition after their vehicle broke down during the speed event on Saturday. However, the team members repaired their bicycle and returned the following day for the endurance race, where they came in first place. In an impressive reversal of fortunes, the University of California, Berkeley team bounced back from a disappointing showing at the sprint races to take first place at the endurance event the following day. After their vehicle broke down during the sprint event on Saturday, the Berkeley students seemed resigned to defeat, going as far as removing their competition wristbands and turning in the transponder for their vehicle. Instead of heading home, however, the team members decided to stay up all night to make repairs their vehicle. The next day, they returned to the competition and went on to claim the top spot in Sundays endurance race, beating out two strong teams from the University of Nevada, Reno, and Northern Arizona University, who placed second and third, respectively. For more details on HPVC West, visit the events Community page on ASME.org. To learn more about the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, visit the programs web page.