CONTACT: Catharine Lamm
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Last week, at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, 26 teams (out of 30 registered) gathered to compete in the 4th annual Formula Hybrid International Competition. Founded and run by Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, the competition features high-performance hybrid race cars built by teams of undergraduate and graduate engineering students.

The Italian team designed their car "to be considered beautiful and sexy." (And also very fast.) See more photos

This year, a fourth day was added to give teams extra time to pass safety inspections. "The students are dealing with high-voltage electrical systems," said Doug Fraser, Director of the Formula Hybrid Project, "So our safety rules are very stringent."

Day one of the competition was devoted to electrical and mechanical technical inspections which continued into day two, overlapping with the design and marketing presentation events. Day three featured the acceleration runs, the autocross competition, and the design finals. And day four held the endurance event followed by the awards ceremony.

"The level of competition has grown substantially in the short history of Formula Hybrid," said Joseph Helble, Dean and Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth, "And particularly impressive this year was the speed and maneuverability of several of the cars in the autocross competition."

"This is first and foremost an educational event," added Fraser, "We want students to leave here a little bit smarter from the experience. And I think we achieved that goal."

"I want to thank all our sponsors," said Wynne Washburn, Deputy Director of Formula Hybrid, "Their investment not only supports the event and the students working on hybrid technology innovation but also raises the public profile of Formula Hybrid which helps both the competition and the individual teams as well."

A summary of this year's results is below, and a PDF of the final scores is available on the Formula Hybrid website.

Illinois Institute of Technology's car passes the tilt test

Teams in attendance

• Brigham Young University
• California Polytechnic State University–SLO
• Colorado State University
• Dartmouth College
• Drexel University
• Florida A&M University/Florida State
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Lawrence Technological University
• MADI State Technical University (Russia)
• McGill University (Canada)
• Milwaukee School of Engineering
• National Chiao Tung University (Taiwan)
• New Hampshire Technical Institute
• North Carolina State University
• Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• San Jose State University
• St Cloud State University
• Texas A&M University
• Tufts University
• University of California–Davis
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Manitoba (Canada)
• University of Vermont
• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Yale University

The Dartmouth team prepares their car for inspection at the design event

2010 winners

• 1st Overall: Politecnico di Torino
• 2nd Overall: Texas A&M University
• 3rd Overall: University of California–Davis
• 4th Overall: Brigham Young University
• 5th Overall: University of Wisconsin–Madison
• 6th Overall: Dartmouth College

Individual event winners & awards

• Design: Politecnico di Torino
• Presentation: Texas A&M U.
• Acceleration–electric only: U. Vermont
• Acceleration–unrestricted: Texas A&M U.
• Autocross: Politecnico di Torino
• Endurance: Politecnico di Torino
• Hybrid-in-Progress Award: 1st Prize–Florida A&M U./Florida State; 2nd Prize–San Jose State U.; 3rd Prize–Lawrence Tech
• GM Best Engineered Hybrid Systems Award: 1st Prize ($2500)–Illinois Institute of Technology; 2nd Prize ($1500)–Yale; 3rd Prize ($500)–Lawrence Tech
• IEEE Engineering the Future Award: Politecnico di Torino

The Russian team poses for a group photo

Dartmouth modeled its event after the Formula SAE® competition in which Dartmouth engineering students have competed for over 10 years. The main difference in the Formula Hybrid competition is that teams need to consider the additional factors of fuel efficiency and materials sustainability in the construction of their car. Like Formula SAE®, students must also consider the design, acceleration, handling, and endurance of their vehicle and abide by a long list of rules.

Competition sponsors include the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New Hampshire Motor Speedway, SolidWorks, Plug In America, Toyota, General Motors, and Chrysler.