Report #11: Team Profile: 'GarnetOne'

The NESEA American Tour de Sol attracts teams of all sizes, ranging from half-a-hundred souls to only a handful. The 'Garnet One' being entered by Swarthmore College is from a team in the "handful" category.

Tom Fennimore tells their story ...

"Our school is for undergraduates only, so we lack a graduate school where more experienced engineering students could aid us. Moreover, our school has only 1300 students and our engineering department has about 25 students per a class.There are only five people working on the project which is very small compared to other groups I have spoken to.

All five team members are seniors and our plans next year are rather diverse and interesting. One of us will be doing some tuna fishing in the Pacific Ocean. Another will be attending NYU law school. A Big Six accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, hired another member on our team while a Wall Street company, Goldman Sachs, hired another in their Investment Banking Division.  The final team member will go on to work in Lockheed Martin's Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) division. How many schools do you know that graduate engineers which enter into such industries as law school, accounting firms, Wall Street, and fishing?

Two of us were captains of our school's football team, another was captain of the track team, and still another was captain of the lacrosse team. The final member was editor of the school paper.

Swarthmore College never had an HEV team until this year. The reason is that we are such a small school (1300 students total, 80 engineers) and thus
never had the resources, or the desire, to start such a program. Most of the schoolsin the Tour de Sol, and other HEV competitions, are large universities who can take advantage of not only their large engineering student population, but also their large budgets, to establish such programs. I believe Swarthmore College is the first small college to start such a program.

This is the story of how the program started. The fall of my junior year (November 1995), Kurk Selverian, a current team member, and myself were talking about our senior design course. Both of us had an interest in automobiles, especially in their future technology. My dad owned an automobile repair shop,so ever since I was six I have worked on cars. We
joked about how it would becool to build an electric vehicle. Since the college never attempted such an endeavor, we went to talk to Prof. Nelson Macken, the current faculty advisor of the project.

Prof. Macken was excited about our idea and suggested that we talk to local universities and corporations who had EV programs and ask them about their experiences, specifically what resources are required, how much effort is needed, how long did the project take, and how much money did it cost. Kurk and I then talked to University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Villanova, and PECO (the electric utility in Philadelphia). Simultaneously, we researched EVs and searched for contests to enter our vehicle in. This is when we first came across the Tour de Sol.

In mid-March of 1996 we went to the Engineering department and the college outlining our plans to build an EV. After some debate, our proposal was approved and we could begin our work. At this time, Pete Hamilton became interested in the project. Pete has an excellent background in internal combustion engines, and so we decided to expand our project to
accommodate Pete's skills and build an HEV instead of an EV. We also decided to compete inthe Tour de Sol.

Our next step was fundraising. All fundraising was done by Kurk, Pete, Nelson, and me. We put together a brief presentation of our idea and went to local corporations and alumni to sell it. Our efforts were rewarded by component donations from PECO, several cash donations from alumni, a generous grant from the school, and the donation of a brand new Chevrolet Beretta from General Motors. This experience provided us with the opportunity to learn valuable presentation, communication, interpersonal, and public speaking skills. Frequently we found ourselves speaking to crowds larger than 300 people pitching our ideas. By the summer we had enough money and resources to start ordering components.

Over the summer we expanded our team to the current size by adding two people, Al Molnar and Tom Makin. Also over the summer we ordered all the parts necessary for our conversion so that when we returned in the fall we could begin construction.

When we returned to school, our first task was to find a place to work.  The College let us use two garages on the periphery of the campus. For the first month, we had to play the role of carpenters and installed drywall, fans, heating, electricity, a telephone, and fixed several leaks. Finally in October we began our construction.

Right now (mid-April) we are still working on the car, albeit in the final stages. Each of us on the team have put in extraordinary hours -- averaging about 30 hours per a week per a person. We have done all this while still taking a full course load. Last night, for example, we stayed up until 4 a.m.working on the car."

So here is a project that has been going on for over a year-and-a-half! It will be interesting to see what a small, tight-knit team can do against the larger ones.
 

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The above is copyright Michael H. Bianchi. Permission to copy is granted provided the entire article is presented without modification and this notice remains attached. For other arrangements, contact me at +1-973-822-2024.