A team of four NIU engineering students has spent much of the past year designing and building what it hopes will become a 21st century version of the Ford Model T for rural villages worldwide.
The team members share that goal in common with about dozen teams at universities nationwide, all of which will be competing Saturday, April 28, at an annual competition in Indianapolis sponsored by the Institute for Affordable Transportation. The group works to develop high-quality, low-cost transportation for the working poor in the developing world.
At the competition, teams will show off a wide variety of vehicles built around a stringent set of specifications. The vehicle must be built using readily available components, have 95 percent fewer parts than the standard automobile and at a cost not to exceed 20 percent of the cost of a small truck. It must be flexible (capable of comfortably transporting people or up to 1,100 pounds of cargo); tough and agile (capable of negotiating rutted dirt, roads, muddy roads or no roads at all); and it must be efficient (capable of coaxing at least 30 miles per gallon out of its 10 horsepower engine).
The NIU team placed fourth last year (when teams were asked to develop three-wheeled ambulances) and received special recognition for the design of its suspension system.
That was the first time an NIU team actually made it to the competition, with three previous designs all breaking down prior to the event. Applying lessons learned in years past, the NIU team is in its best shape ever heading into the competition, says technology professor Andrew Otieno, who advises on the project.
This year’s design stipulates a four-wheeled vehicle and requires that teams scavenge parts from common mid-sized cars such as Toyota Corollas or Honda Civics, but much of the NIU vehicle was fabricated from scratch.
- Joe King, NIU Public Affairs