The UW-Madison Human Powered Vehicle Club’s attempt to create a human-powered recumbent bike didn’t quite pan out.
But the bike the HPVC ultimately created never fails to turn heads.
Kevin Macauley demonstrates how to use the vehicle prototype built by him and fellow UW-Madison students, including, from top left, Dylan Zinkgraf, Andrew Nasr and Teekay Kowalewski, outside the Engineering Centers building.
HPVC’s three-wheeled recumbent bike, nicknamed “The Oli Special” after a former club member, regularly catches the attention of bikers using the standard pedal power on the trails. Often, whoever is driving The Oli Special has to stop to answer a few questions.
“There was a guy who built e-bikes that stopped me, and I had a 15-minute conversation on the side of the road,” HPVC member Teekay Kowalewski said.
“Out on the bike path, everybody’s staring at you because it’s just so weird,” HPVC member Kevin Macauley added.
UW-Madison student Kevin Macauley demonstrates the vehicle prototype outside the Engineering Centers building. Macauley said the bike captures people's attention as the driver zooms around on area bike trails.
The @UWMechEngr Human Powered Vehicle Team isn’t the only group to design, build & compete in @ASMEdotorg-sponsored competitions, but they may be the only ones to test their vehicle on a frozen lake. Check out their recent test drive! @UWMadEngr @UWMadison #BadgerEngineers pic.twitter.com/zjg61DnLmc
— UW-Madison Mechanical Engineering (@UWMechEngr) February 1, 2023
The Madison team will soon be competing with engineering students across the country vying for the title of best racer as part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) annual competition.
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ASME recently started allowing competitors to add battery power to their designs, to reflect the rising popularity of e-bikes.
They tried, without success, to get a human-powered model to work. The current model has an electric motor underneath the seat, sheathed in plastic to protect it from the elements, with the power of 12 humans and capable of reaching 35 miles per hour. Much like commercial electric vehicles, the bike is capable of regenerative braking, which allows power to flow back into the battery as it slows down.
Made in partnership with Fond du Lac-based Mercury Marine, a group of female UW-Madison engineering students will present their prototype at the society's annual conference in Houston later this week.
HPVC members will use that bike as their starting point for an upgraded version that they’ll take to ASME’s spring competition. The national competition features an hourslong relay involving a grocery store run, a requirement of the endurance challenge.
“You have to be able to get groceries because the overwhelming goal of the bike is to replace a car in a city setting,” Kowalewski said. “We’re trying to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, plus cities are getting more congested these days ... when you switch to a vehicle of this size, versus a full-sized car, your parking garage can fit twice, three times, four times as many vehicles.”
UW-Madison students, including Teekay Kowalewski, right, talk about the parts of the vehicle prototype they built, with Andrew Nasr, at left, and Kevin Macauley in the Engineering Centers building.
New technologies aside, HPVC members are having to start fresh. HPVC lost almost all of its membership during the COVID-19 pandemic and was saved mainly through the persistence of former student Oliver Ouradnik, namesake of the Oli Special.
“The biggest loss to our club was we lost that knowledge transfer, so that’s why it’s been kind of difficult starting from scratch,” HPVC member Dylan Zinkgraf said. “(We’re) having to all kind of learn it for ourselves the first time, which has been a challenge, but it’s also been really fun as well.”
Part of that discovery is finding out older designs were “pretty sketchy,” HPVC member Lincoln Devine said. HPVC will expand on The Oli by adding rear suspension — it’s a bumpy ride, Macauley said — and introducing aerospace-grade aluminum alloy to strengthen the bike’s frame.
UW-Madison student Kevin Macauley displays a studded tire used on the prototype. The snow tires are an addition to the new bike the students are building for a competition later this spring, as they hope to add a Midwestern flair to it.
"How do (builders) know what concrete needs to be replaced and what concrete doesn't need to be replaced? So this informs that sort of decision making."
To give HPVC’s new bike a Midwestern flair, the group plans to add a nose cone that will direct winter winds away from the rider and snow tires with spikes to better grip the snow and ice.
HPVC members are hoping it separates them from their competitors, but getting to drive The Oli on ice is an extra perk.
“At the end of the day, we have an amazing lake next door, so why not make use of that?” HPVC member Andrew Nasr said.
From left, UW-Madison students Lincoln Devine, Andrew Nasr, Dylan Zinkgraf, Kevin Macauley and Teekay Kowalewski show off their vehicle prototype in the Engineering Centers building.
The scan will help researchers study the 1,200-year-old wooden canoe.
Fave 5: Reporter Kimberly Wethal shares her favorite stories of 2022
In the weeks before I joined the Wisconsin State Journal in September, I was told this: Remember that a higher education institution is like their own city. It has its own character and struggles, defined by the students who learn there and the faculty who teach them.
I have seen this over and over again, and it was particularly clear when I visited UW-Platteville at Richland a week after the University of Wisconsin System ordered degree-fulfilling classes to cease because of low enrollment. During my visit, I found many of the devastated students to be emotionally invested in their campus community — and committed to saving it.
It's why Richland Center grieving the loss of its once-vibrant campus is my top story of 2022.
UW-Madison has its own slate of issues. There, a growing population is pitted against on- and off-campus housing availability. I wrote about the tactics used to clear returning students out of the dorms to make room for freshmen, and the frenzy that ensued as students put their lives on hold to secure housing for next fall.
At Madison Area Technical College, a key issue is how to alleviate barriers their students face just to get into the classroom. Finding adequate child care is one of them — I wrote about the efforts to expand future access at the Goodman South Campus and its four rural campuses.
Much of my beat is hard news, but some of my favorite stories are features of students who make up the character of campus. I wrote about Kirstan Gimse, the student commencement speaker who's achieving her dream of being a scientist that she saw as unattainable.
I'm looking forward to diving deeper into the beat in 2023 and am so grateful for the support of State Journal subscribers that allows me to be one of the few reporters in the state dedicated solely to covering higher education.
After budget cuts and consolidations, the campus' enrollment is down 90% from 2014, and UW-Platteville was ordered to shutter the campus.
With record enrollment contributing to the housing crunch, UW-Madison lured students out of dorms by offering incentives to live elsewhere.
Management companies are seeing some of their housing in prime areas sell out three to four weeks faster than previous years.
A new Early Learning Center that opened in 2021 at MATC's Truax campus doubled capacity, and a facility at the Goodman South campus could be next.
UW-Madison doctorate student Kirstan Gimse found the courage to go back to school a decade ago from a chemistry professor she would wait on.
