Huskie Hypermilers crack top 10 at Shell Eco-Marathon Americas

The average Indy racer gets about four miles to a gallon of gasoline. On their trip to the world-famous racetrack in Indianapolis, the NIU Supermileage team managed to do much better, clocking in at the equivalent of 5,640 mpg.

That performance was good enough to earn the team a ninth-place finish at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2024, which was held April 3-7 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The competition featured 73 teams in all, from across the United States, Canada and Central America, with 28 of those competing in the Battery Electric category.

The top-ten finish marked a return to prominence for the NIU Team, which took the top spot at the competition in 2019 setting a mark of 1,525 mpg.

After two years on the sidelines when the global pandemic forced cancellation of the event, the NIU team returned with its sights on a new challenge: revamping their internal combustion engine vehicle to compete in the battery-electric category.

During their first two attempts in that class the team (now competing under the name Huskie Hypermilers) experienced some frustration. Their new designs were unable to complete a qualifying run of at least four laps (about 9.5 miles) in less than 35 minutes. Clearing that hurdle this year was one of the highlights of the weekend, says team captain Heather Wolf, a senior mechanical engineering major.

"My favorite part was celebrating with the team after the first qualifying run and getting to see how excited and proud everyone was," says Wolf, who was one of two drivers for the team at the competition. The following day, engineering student Nina Kasman was at the wheel when the Hypermilers set their new personal best of 162 miles per kilowatt hour, or 5,640 mpg.(The mileage is calculated using a formula that converts the electrical energy expended into a gasoline miles-per-gallon equivalent.)

The extraordinary leap in mileage was mostly due to the switch to electric (for which Wolf credits the work of Logan Wilson, next year's team president, and graduate student Shayne Taylor), but the team also made several other significant modifications to the car this year. They replaced their old chain drive system (similar to that of a bicycle) with a new in-hub motor; converted their power source to current control; and re-designed the steering system, which improved alignment so that the vehicle rolled with less resistance.

Like all other aspects of the vehicle, the team, which is comprised of 30 students, fabricated and assembled all of the parts. "I am really proud that that NIU students designed and built every part of the vehicle," said Wolf, who noted that team members may spend anywhere from 3 hours to more than 30 hours a week working on the vehicle, depending on their role.

For Wolf, that work has paid off as she has already lined up a job after graduation working for Case-International Harvester where she will be part of the team working to bring electric versions of farm equipment and heavy machinery to market.

The performance was very impressive, said Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dr. Eric Lee, especially in light of some of the hurdles the team had to overcome.

"With limited financial resources and facing a technical issue that seemed unsolvable, our engineering students (undergraduate and graduate) persevered through the final stage of vehicle preparation and showed that NIU engineering could compete with any other top university in the nation."

While Wolf and other leaders of the team will be graduating, the Huskie Hypermilers are already looking ahead to next year. They spent a great deal of time at the speedway comparing notes with other teams and came home with ideas to squeeze even greater mileage out of their vehicle going forward. A complete overhaul of the vehicle is planned, starting with a new carbon fiber body (already completed), which will eliminate the need for an aluminum frame significantly cutting weight from the current 70-pound model.

"It will be a lot of work," said Wolf. "But I have great faith in the team and next year's leadership. We have our sights set on getting back to the top of the leaderboard, and I have no doubt that we will be able to do that."

Members of the team that traveled to Indianapolis were Logan Wilson, Heather Wolf, Eduardo Mora, Aditi Venkatesh, Nina Kasman, Josiah Saari, David Geron, Cameron Grund, Caleb Maue, Zachary Schmidt, Kurt Hill and Mathew Vanderwater.

Sponsors of the team were: DMG Mori, Dukane, Navistar, SJT, Gordon's Hardware,Joe Cotton Ford, ER2 Image Group, Solidworks, Ansys, ETAS and SGA.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.