College of Engineering Magazine- Fall 2000

Pedal to the Metal with Eighteen Volts

By Georgiana Cohen (COM '01)

Having a car is important to most high school students. But how many of them want a car powered only by two nine-volt batteries? And how many of them want to build the car themselves?

Well, at least 240 of them, judging by the number of high school freshmen, sophomores, and juniors who entered the tenth annual College of Engineering Peak Performance Design Competition. Working in two-person teams last June, they took up the challenge of designing and building their own nine-volt vehicle that could ascend a slope under its own power and maintain its position at the top. In the process, they learned some engineering fundamentals that will hold them in good stead as they move on to college.

After several rounds of competition overseen by ENG students and staff members, eleventh graders Meghan Harris and Charles Brauneck from Brentwood High School in Brentwood, New York, took home first prize, a four-year, $5,000-per-year scholarship to BU for each of them. But beyond the financial incentives, the contest helped students see that engineering is fun, said Marc Davino, ENG coordinator of freshman programs. "We want to instill in high school students some of the concepts behind engineering. We want to get them excited about it," he said.

For most students, that sense of excitement was at the forefront. "We'd like to see our car kick butt," said Samir Goncalves, seventeen, from Hopkinton (Massachusetts) High School, about The Beast II, the car he built with his partner, seventeen-year-old Andrew Sweeney. "It's hard work," Goncalves said, "but the results are gratifying."

At the very least, said Ethan Brown, a sixteen-year-old student from Milton Academy in Massachusetts, "we can say that we did this, and that's huge."

Joe Marcin, eighteen, from Tri-County High School in Franklin, Massachusetts, liked being able to take his knack for putting things together to another level. "I just like designing and making stuff," he said. "I did this last year and I made it to the semifinals. It's fun."

Laura Tarko, fifteen, and Jared Goldberg, sixteen, both from Newton South High School in Massachusetts, were exuberant after their car won its first-round match. "It worked for the first time ten minutes before the race," Goldberg noted. Their car, The Ottermobile, was named in honor of a friend of theirs who likes otters. "Since it won, it deserved a name," she explained, "so we christened it with a soldering iron."