Education (cont'd)
PACTRANS-SPONSORED UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO TEAM CLEANS UP AT THE CLEAN
SNOWMOBILE CHALLENGE IN HOUGHTON, MICHIGAN
The University of Idaho's Clean Snowmobile Challenge Team won
a record number of awards at the 2013 Society of Automotive
Engineers Clean Snowmobile Challenge Competition held in
Houghton, Michigan in March. The 13-0member team took third
place overall and won 10 out of 21 possible awards, including
recognitions for snowmobile design, project display, safety,
value and innovation, winning $1,000 in prize money. The team
was also one of only six to complete the competition's 85-mile
endurance run.
This year at the competition, the young engineers were asked
to design a snowmobile that would run on flex fuel, which can
be anywhere from 40-70% ethanol. They also had to create
two modes for the sled, so it could switch between running at
optimum power and running more cleanly and quietly. The UI
team's snowmobile uses a two-stroke engine like traditional
snowmobiles, but runs about 20 times cleaner than the machines
commonly in production just 10 years ago.
UI snowmobile finishes the endurance portion of the Clean Snowmobile Challenge Competition
In April, the team also won the award for Excellence in Technical
Presentation at the UI 20th Annual Engineering Design Expo.
www.pactrans.org
26
Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium
