EcoCar: A happy team is a productive team

With the final year of the EcoCar Challenge, brings the excitement of the final production of the Rose-Hulman team’s vehicle. The team, consisting of five team leaders, two graduate students, and 32 members all together, are in the optimization stage of the competition. Last year, Rose-Hulman was one of only five teams to be running a full hybrid vehicle with engine and electrical, but unfortunately could not compete because they were not able to get their vehicle running in time due to shipment delays for the safety inspection portion of the competition. This year, the team is excited to be having a running vehicle with the majority of the parts instilled and ready to be optimized.

Their latest development towards optimization includes MotoTune software; a display that allows for a reading of fuel consumption, miles per gallon, instantaneous miles per gallon, vehicles state of charge for the battery, as well as temperature readings.

The Rose-Hulman team was able to see their MotoTune software in action when they were given the opportunity to test drive their vehicle back home in Indiana. After endless hours of hard work and dedication put into the production of the vehicle, a test drive could certainly be considered rewarding for the team members.

“We have everyone in the vehicle testing the vehicle because it’s really encouraging and a morale booster,” said Chad Conway, Rose-Hulman’s overall team leader.

With the seats of the vehicle filled, everyone in the car becomes part of the test driving experience.

“Everyone in the back seat can see how far you have the accelerator pedal push down. They can tell if you’re slamming it, going 100% or just slowly accelerating. It’s kind of fun,” Conway said.

A little bit of fun can bring a lot more motivation. “We took that energy and molded it out into something more productive,” continued Conway. National Instruments’ software collects and instantly documents the data, providing Rose-Hulman any necessary information about issues that may occur that are not noticed while test driving.

As the final stages of the competition quickly approaches, the future remains hopeful as the vehicle reaches full optimization.

“We’re finally starting to get to that end goal and are really seeing the car come together in a lot of ways,” Conway said with promising enthusiasm.