Michigan Tech to Host Clean Snowmobile Challenge
HOUGHTON--Teams from universities across America will travel to Michigan
Technological University next March to compete in the SAE Clean Snowmobile
Challenge. The sleds will go head to head on snow and ice March 19-22 at MTU's Keweenaw
Research Center, home of 500 acres of proving grounds and the Midwest's
finest winter driving test track. The Clean Snowmobile Challenge is the Society of Automotive Engineers'
newest collegiate design competition. Teams of engineering students from
participating schools take a perfectly good stock snowmobile and then
reengineer it to reduce emissions and noise while maintaining or improving
performance. For the past three years, the event has been held at Jackson Hole, Wyo.,
under the sponsorship of SAE and the Institute of Science, Ecology and
the Environment. So far, 10 teams representing universities from the length of the Snow
Belt have entered the 2003 SAE Snowmobile Challenge: Michigan Tech, the
University of Wyoming, the University of Alaska, the University of Waterloo,
Clarkson University, the University of Idaho, Kettering University, the
University of Maine, the University of Buffalo and the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Other teams are expected to register by the September deadline. "We're really looking forward to having students from across the
country competing in our own back yard," said Keweenaw Research Center
Director Jay Meldrum, who is coordinating the Clean Snowmobile Challenge.
"Hosting this competition is a natural for KRC, and we are honored
that SAE has chosen us." The Keweenaw Research Center conducts cold-weather research on vehicles
for the U.S. military and offers an annual winter driving school. It's
the home of the Institute for Snow Research, which is engaged in basic
and applied research into snow, ice and cold-environment engineering.
KRC is also working to develop new, more-scientific methods for measuring
snowmobile noise. #### 6/14/02--MTN 069
