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Bike Trailer Duo Take Second at National Engineering Competition
Also receive Environmental Awareness award
March 9, 2009
Lindsey Kettel and Cory Minkhorst took second place for their collapsible bicycle trailer invention at the Canadian Engineering Competition held this past weekend in Fredericton. They were also recipients of the Environmental Awareness award.
The two fifth-year mechanical engineering and management students were one of eight university engineering teams competing in the innovation category. They qualified for the national event by winning their category at the Ontario Engineering Competition, which was held in February.
The first-of-its-kind collapsible carrier is pulled behind a bicycle like a regular rigid trailer designed to fold compactly onto a rear bike rack when not in use. This is done by first unlocking the rigid floor base, then removing the pins for both wheels, and finally lifting the whole light-weight assembly upward to fold and securely lock onto the rear bike rack.
The inspiration behind the trailer was to encourage more commuters to cycle to work. Research conducted by the McMaster duo showed that more people would commute by bicycle if they had a convenient, safe and secure way to transport things on their way to and from work. With more cyclists and fewer cars there would be less damage to the environment and improvement to people’s health.
First place in the innovation category went to a team from the Université de Sherbrooke for the development of a kit plane using composite materials. Third place was for a wireless heart monitor developed by a team from Concordia University. Teams were also entered from the University of New Brunswick (2), University of Toronto, University of Victoria and the University of Alberta.
The Canadian Engineering Competition (CEC) is an annual event that challenges university engineering students from across the country to a series of competitions. More than 200 competitors from 15 universities participated in this year’s event. The six competition categories include Team Design, Senior Team Design, Innovative Design, Consulting Engineering, Engineering Communication, and Extemporaneous Debates.
