Momentum - September 2019 - 24

STUDENT
GENERATION

VICTORY FOR VICTORIA
AT FORMULA HYBRID

Georgia Tech captured first place in the Electric Class.

ARMED WITH A RELATIVELY LIGHTWEIGHT capacitor-based system,
the Uvic Hybrid team from the University of Victoria earned top scores
for the Engineering Design, Acceleration, and Autocross Events to
capture first place overall in the Hybrid Class at the Formula Hybrid
competition held in April and May. The Georgia Tech team defended its
2018 first-place title in the Electric Class with high scores in the Design,
Autocross, and Endurance Events.
Formula Hybrid is recognized by SAE's Collegiate Design Series and is
based at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth.
"I knew that the team would have a very good chance of performing
well in the competition," University of Victoria team lead Chad McColm
told MOMENTUM. "I probably wouldn't have invested the time and
money to go to competition if I didn't know that we could win. And to
come out of that with a first-place finish is just a reaffirmation that the
team had the skills and discipline to do exactly what we thought we
could do, and that means a lot to me."
The key to victory, he said, was rules embracement-"and not just rules
compliance. Rules compliance will get the car onto the track, but if the

Photo credit: Bruce Fraser for Thayer School of
Engineering, Dartmouth College

The University of Victoria team with its first-place trophy. Team lead Chad McColm is
fourth from left.
24 September 2019

Photo credit: Kathryn Lapierre for Thayer
School of Engineering, Dartmouth College

vehicle is not designed to target the specific measured
outcomes of the competition, it will not place first."
The most significant design decision regarding its car
was to use an ultracapacitor energy storage system, said
McColm. "We knew the relative benefits of ultracaps
versus lithium-ion in theory, and we used a model-inloop simulation to study the projected differences in
simulation. This allowed the team to accurately evaluate
the two systems for this competition and ultimately
decide on ultracapacitors because their power-to-weight
ratio and ease of integration more directly embraced the
rules of the competition."
McColm lived out the title of "team lead" in every
manner. As such, "that put me in a variety of positions
which ranged from a technical lead to a support
coordinator and a recruiter," he said. "One day I'd be
grilling teammates at a design review, and the next
day I'd be selling Krispy Kreme donuts at a fundraiser.
Ultimately, the team lead has final accountability and
authority, so I really had to learn to balance a level of
oversight that would keep the team on track without
micromanaging."
After building a 413-pound vehicle for last year's
competition, the Georgia Tech's HyTech Racing team beat
its own goal of 380 pounds by producing a 368-pound
vehicle for the 2019 competition.
"There's an old adage in racing that goes 'more power
makes you faster in the straights, losing weight makes
you faster everywhere,'" said Sam Gilmer, HyTech Racing
chief engineer. "Being light means your tires are more
efficient and you have less momentum and accelerate
more quickly."

By Patrick Ponticel, MOMENTUM editor

MOMENTUM
Momentum - September 2019

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