Calvin Team Designs Prize-Winning Vehicle

May 2, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: A Calvin College engineering team took second in a national
competition for basic utility vehicles, designed for use as high-quality,
low-cost transportation for the working poor in the developing world. Their
prize-winning vehicle will be on display at Calvin this Saturday.

Full story, including high-res JPGs, see
http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/team-buv.htm

A basic utility vehicle (BUV) built by a Calvin senior design team from
salvaged automobile parts placed second in the recent 2007 BUV Design
Competition sponsored by the Institute for Affordable Transportation.

Calvin finished a mere 1.1 points behind a team from Northern Illinois
University, but ahead of third-place Purdue University. The Calvin BUV was
built by four mechanical engineering students: Steve Buys from Denver,
Colorado; Rob Lindquist from Dayton, Ohio; Scott Saxsma from Highland, Indiana;
and Matt Korthuis from Lynden, Washington.

“We were really proud of how we did, and it was a lot of fun for us all,”
says Korthuis of the competition, which took place this year in Indianapolis.

 In retrospect, the team feels that a hardier set of tires was necessary to
win. Their second place finish did earn them a trophy, tickets to the Indy 500
and “sweet hats and plastic cups.”

The Calvin team topped the competition in the judge's drive, the endurance
test, the acceleration test, the mogul field and both written and oral
presentations.

The BUV was not only designed for the contest; the four students also
submitted it as their senior design project, the culmination of their Calvin
engineering education. The vehicle will be on display with the other projects
during the senior design open house, to be held 4:30 through 6 p.m. on
Saturday, May 5 at the Calvin Engineering Building.

The quartet chose their project after learning about the contest from the
Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT) Web site. The IAT is a
not-for-profit public charity devoted to developing high-quality, low-cost
transportation for the working poor in the developing world. This was the
seventh year the institute has held the contest to inspire new design ideas for
the multipurpose BUVs they produce for Africa and Latin America.

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Received on Wed May 2 12:14:37 2007