MSOE Wins the 2004 BUV Competition!

The Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) team from the Milwaukee School of Engineering has captured 1st place at the annual BUV competition held May 7 and 8 in Zionsville (Indianapolis) Indiana.

Sponsored by the Institute for Affordable Transportation, the event aims to develop low-cost, dependable vehicles for use in rural areas of developing countries. The competition includes a wide range of performance tests including endurance, acceleration, hill climbing, swamp crossing, static pull, agility, and a wicked obstacle course. Also part of the competition was the ability to achieve strict design goals including cost, weight, packaging for overseas shipment, ease of assembly, and speed, among many others.

Sixteen teams from the USA and Canada entered the competition and MSOE outdistanced second place finisher Tri-State University (Indiana) and third place finisher Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (Canada).

Another component of the competition was a written report including detailed engineering analyses. One of the judges commented that "MSOE has set a new standard for engineering reports."

MSOE's team of (left to right in the photo) Jason Mueller, Bill Alsteen, Adam Schneider, Randy Rumpf, Kurt Snyder, Jason Gudex, and (not pictured) Jason Schneider designed and built an impressive vehicle that displayed an optimal blend of speed, power, and agility.

Team Advisor Dr. John Pakkala invites you to join him in congratulating the team on a superb performance! You can reach the team by email at buv@msoe.edu.