For the first time, students participating in the competition were paired with industry mentors to help them take their bike designs and future engineering careers to the next level.
February 14, 2019 — The NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is a competition that challenges college engineering students to redesign a traditional bicycle using hydraulics as the mode of power transmission. This is NFPA’s third year of organizing this competition, and during this time the program has provided students with discovery, energy, and innovation. It has facilitated great advice and great connections. It has inspired generosity in the middle of a highly competitive race and team spirit that never dies. All of this while supporting learning and the growth of fluid power industry knowledge.
Resources are improved upon year after year, and new this year, each university Vehicle Challenge team worked with an assigned NFPA industry member mentor. The teams get competition points for checking in with their mentor at least four times throughout the program and submitting a summary of their discussion. Mentors help with things like vehicle bike design and schematics, component selection, assembly questions, and final adjustments before the competition. They can also be judges at the competition. This new program is providing much-needed resources and advice to the teams while giving industry members access to very creative engineering students.
One of the students participating in the Vehicle Challenge said this about the program -“All in all, we see a lot of benefit in the Mentor Program and the new thoughts it will curate for this year’s competition. We have enjoyed our experience thus far and we look forward to new ones on the horizon.”
NFPA’s workforce strategy is to help increase the number of university students educated in fluid power and connect them to NFPA member companies and careers in the fluid power industry. The Vehicle Challenge is increasing the number of students learning about fluid power and connecting those students to industry.
Many thanks to the 2019 Vehicle Challenge sponsors: Bimba, Eaton, Lube-Tech, Parker Hannifin and SunSource. This would not be possible without you.
The opportunity to mentor and/or judge a Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is reserved for Silver and Gold Pascal donors. For more information, please contact Lynn Beyer at lbeyer@nfpa.com or (414) 778-3364.
About the NFPA
NFPA is a trade association focused on strengthening the hydraulics and pneumatics industry. With more than 340 fluid power manufacturers, distributors and suppliers in its membership, NFPA works to advance fluid power education, technology and the industry as a whole.
