Formula Hybrid Contest: 10 Years of Experiential Learning

Body

Read the full story, published by Thayer School of Engineering.

Celebrating its 10th consecutive year, Dartmouth's Formula Hybrid Competition is taking place this week at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.

Image
Formula hybrid car

This year, 28 teams are competing, including the competition's first all-female team. (Photo by Kathryn Lapierre/Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth)

Founded and run by Thayer School of Engineering, the competition features high-performance hybrid and electric racecars built by teams of undergraduate and graduate engineering students. This year, 28 teams are registered, including the competition's first all-female team: Hot Wheelz from Rochester Institute of Technology. Sixteen Hot Wheelz team members and their advisers traveled to New Hampshire last spring to scope out the 2015 competition.

Dartmouth based its event on the Formula SAE® competition, in which the Dartmouth Formula Racing (DFR) team competed for over 10 years. Like Formula SAE®, students compete in aspects of design, acceleration, handling, and endurance of their vehicle and abide by a list of rules that minimize risk while preserving the students' freedom to innovate. Formula Hybrid teams, however, are faced with the additional challenge of optimizing both energy efficiency and sustainability of materials used in their cars providing students with a uniquely challenging experiential learning experience.

Office of Communications