MSOE students win hybrid vehicle contest

Milwaukee School of Engineering has scored a victory in an international competition for hybrid vehicles.

Competing against about 20 other college teams, MSOE students captured first place in the recent SAE Formula Hybrid event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.

The annual event, sponsored by Dartmouth College, challenges college students across the U.S. and overseas to design, build and compete with high-performance hybrid and electric vehicles.

At the recent competition, May 1 to 4, the MSOE hybrid vehicle team won the top honor overall, and took first place in several categories, including an autocross race.

It was the first team in the history of the competition to complete all 44 laps of the endurance test, plus it had the fastest car in that event.

“The biggest challenge was a huge hill. We had to get up the hill while still saving energy,” said David Roulo, captain of the 64-member team.

“We had the hill in our (computer) simulation, which is what helped us plan how far we could go,” he added.

Their race car was a multiyear project, built at the college using a 250cc Honda motorcycle engine and a powerful electric motor.

It has a top speed of only 60 mph, but that was plenty fast for the challenging race course in the autocross event and the endurance tests.

“We posted the fastest lap of the day for the endurance run: 52 seconds for one kilometer,” Roulo said.

The team spent nights, weekends and some school vacation time working on the car that was built, in large part, from donated materials.

Money was tight, but Roulo said it motivated the team to make wise spending decisions.

“We have been very grateful to have a lot of sponsors, like Snap-on, Milwaukee Electric Tool, Polaris, Energus and Toshiba,” he said.

The MSOE students, all undergraduates, are on career paths ranging from electrical engineering to business administration.

“There were a lot of challenges with the car, but I think the biggest challenge was organizing all of the people in the right way. It was a full group effort, and that’s when it really took off,” Roulo said.

In addition to winning the SAE Formula Hybrid event, the MSOE team received the Industrial Design Award from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and an Engineering The Future Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Roulo grew up around motor vehicle racing. His family, from Blue Island, Ill., has the Roulo Bros. Racing team that’s wellknown on the Midwest stock car circuit.

A senior at MSOE, Roulo said he envisions hybrids as being powerful and fast, as well as energy efficient.

“The muscle car of the future could be a hybrid,” he said.