Category Archives: Transportation
Rocket team flies high in Alabama
The UC Davis SpaceED rocket team has returned from the NASA Student Launch Projects competition in Huntsville, Alabama. They didn’t bring back prizes on their first trip to the competition — but they did bring back some great experiences, despite …
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Great new apps on the move: Mileage and music
Jason Moore and Tai Stillwater, two researchers at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, have developed a neat little smartphone app that monitors fuel economy as you drive. They have already been awarded $2,000 in phase one of the …
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UC Davis team places second, collects $1,000 in ‘chemical car’ competition
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) yesterday announced that the University of Puerto Rico – Mayaguez took top honors at the international Chem-E-Car competition in Minneapolis Sunday, while a team of UC Davis students placed second. The winning team’s …
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Andy Frank named to Auto News “Electrifying 100″
(Contributed by Paul Dorn) UC Davis professor Andy Frank has been selected for the first-ever “Automotive News Electrifying 100.” The Electrifying 100 consists of 100 of the most influential people behind the vehicle electrification movement. Frank’s contributions — which we …
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‘Father of the Plug-in Hybrid’ gets a Chevy Volt
UC Davis engineering professor Andy Frank has been called ‘The Father of the Plug-in Hybrid,’ and yesterday he picked up one of the first to be sold. The Chevrolet Volt made by General Motors has both an electric motor and …
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The Department of Flattened Wildlife
UC Davis researchers have just completed the first year of a comprehensive survey of animals killed by traffic on California’s roads. Fraser Shilling, co-director of the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, has released the first year of data for the …
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Bike controls and the pedal desk
Professors Mont Hubbard and Ron Hess in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering are running a project to study bicycle-human control systems. It turns out, says Hess, that this is a harder problem to study than his usual field: pilots flying airplanes. …
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Andy Frank on Tesla, battery tech
A plane crash earlier this week may have dealt a severe blow to electric car maker Tesla Motors. The company currently sells the Tesla Roadster sports car, a little pricey at over $100,000, and is due to bring out a …
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Retaining walls shaken in test, but not broken
UC Davis civil engineering professor Dawn Cheng recently carried out a series of tests at UC San Diego’s Englekirk Structural Engineering Center. The center has the largest outdoor shake table in the world — meaning that you can build a …
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Andy Frank on the Chevy Volt: A move in the right direction
Last week GM unveiled the new Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid electric car, claiming it could get 230 mpg in typical use. The Volt is expected to hit the market in 2010. Like the Toyota Prius, the Volt will have an …
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