Each year, Dartmouth's Formula Hybrid Competition offers "an opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience innovating across electrical, mechanical, and computer engineering disciplines.” This year was no exception.

“I think it’s the fastest and the funnest laboratory that engineering students could have at their disposal,” said Jerry Gappens, General Manager of the New Hampshire Motor Speedway where the competition is held each year in early May.

“I’ve never been to a NASCAR track,” said Dartmouth Formula Racing team captain Darren Reis ’13, “and so the size and the scale and being on the infield is pretty special.”

Yale Bulldogs Racing team passes the tilt test.

Final results in the hybrid category are:

1. Yale University
2. Lawrence Technological University
3. McMaster University

…and for electric only:

1. Dartmouth
2. University of Vermont
3. University of Massachusetts-Lowell

But in terms of educational value, everyone’s a winner.

“Formula Hybrid is the most difficult and most challenging of all the SAE Collegiate Design Series competitions,” says Competition Organizer Doug Fraser, “and the students that are willing to take this on have a lot of respect for each other and there’s a lot of support between the teams.”

Students willing to take on the challenge are also of interest to the Competition’s corporate sponsors—including General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler—who see it as a unique recruitment opportunity.

“I was on Drexel University’s team last year,” said Nathalie Capati from GM. “It was definitely the most I’ve learned in a six-month period…From it, I got recruited into an exciting field of hybrid-electric vehicles.

“[GM is] here to really support the teams," added Capati. "Hopefully we get some of the students to join our team at GM after the competition…Seeing the teams and seeing them working together is enough for me to recruit them. I don’t need to see them on a one-on-one interview because at Formula Hybrid I can see them in their real form."