The University of Missouri - Kansas City's Human Powered Vehicle Team finished 2nd overall in the 2006 ASME East Coast Human Powered Vehicle Challenge, beating out 16 other mechanical engineering programs.  The Human Powered Vehicle Challenge is sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).  Students design, build, and then race vehicles driven only by human power. The competition consists of three categories: design (consisting of a written design report and presentation), sprint (male and female, fastest vehicle wins), and a 40 mile endurance race.   2006 was the first time that UMKC has entered this competition. There are two locations for the competition each year, a West Coast and an East Coast site. This year the East Coast competition was held at Charlotte, North Carolina on May 5th, 6th, and 7th where UMKC competed against seventeen other Universities.  Six members from UMKC's HPV team traveled to Charlotte. More information on ASME HPV Challenge can be found at www.asme.org/hpv.  The HPV team faculty advisor, Dr. Trent Guess, believes that SCE has started a first rate student competition at UMKC and our prospects for finishing in the top five next year look good.  The new team has already begun designing next year's vehicle. 

Contact:  Trent Guess, Ph.D. email is guesstr@umkc.edu, phone is 816-235-1252 and website is http://www.sce.umkc.edu/~guesstr/