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Learning isn’t confined to the classroom at Queen’s University and for students in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science one of the avenues to gain hands-on experience is through design teams.

For Chris Woischwill, currently a master’s student in mechanical engineering, his participation in the Queen’s Eco-Vehicle Team has provided him not only a valuable learning experience but also a new calling for his area of study.

The QEVT – which designs, manufactures and races prototype and concept vehicles in pursuit of attaining new heights in fuel efficiency – is a new team that has only been around for two years. From the start, the team set an ambitious goal of competing in the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas competition in Houston with a mere four months to create a vehicle from scratch.

Their vehicle was able to pass all the technical inspections and successfully finish the marathon, recording a fuel efficiency of 180 miles per gallon – for comparison, the top hybrid vehicles on the road today top out around 50 miles per gallon.

While the QEVT lagged well behind the leading teams from across North and South America, simply finishing the marathon, Mr. Woischwill explains, was a competitive result.

“I think that was our biggest accomplishment,” he says. “We went down to Texas in our first year and we raced a car, we passed all the technical inspections. Only three quarters of the teams that arrive at competition are able to pass technical inspections, and even less are able to make it across the finish line. Managing to do both in our first year of competition is an enormous accomplishment.”

The team returned to the event this year, held in Detroit, and passed the inspections but was unable to finish the street course. A positive, however, was that, after their own analysis, they nearly tripled their efficiency to 520 miles per gallon.

It has been a great experience all around, Mr. Woischwill says, including what he has learned as the operations manager handling the organization of the team.

“I’m so glad that I did a design team. I remember that in my first year I did a summer co-op and they said what set me apart from the other candidates was that I had more extra-curricular experience and that’s what they look at when hiring people,” he says. “So when I heard that, the next year I went and joined this team as it was starting up and really focused on this. Really, I think it’s true that employers look at design teams. I think that if the employer was looking at two people with identical resumes they would pick the one with design teams experience just because you really get the experience of team dynamics, such as meeting deadlines and collaborating with others.”

When he started at Queen’s, Mr. Woischwill thought that renewable energies was the only engineering field that could lead to a greener tomorrow. However, after joining QEVT he gained a new passion for designing and constructing lightweight, eco-friendly vehicles.

Currently he and academic supervisor Il-Yong Kim (Mechanical Engineering) are collaborating with General Motors to develop lighter trucks to improve fuel efficiency.

That makes the QEVT a perfect fit for Mr. Woischwill.

But for now his goal, and that of all the members of the QEVT, is to keep increasing the fuel efficiency of their vehicle and keep improving.

“We really hope that we can be a top team in the next three or four years,” he says. “We know that is aggressive but we were aggressive when we said we wanted to get to competition the first year so maybe we’ll keep building on that momentum.”

There are a number of design teams organized by the Engineering Society of Queen’s University that focus on all aspects of engineering and provide a wide range of jobs for a variety of levels of commitment: Aero Design Team (QADT); Baja SAE Design Team; Concrete Canoe Team; Concrete Toboggan; Queen’s Eco-Vehicle Team (QEVT); Environmental Sustainability Team (QUEST); Formula SAE Team; Fuel Cell Team (QFCT); Genetically Engineered Machine (QGEM); Mostly Autonomous Sailboat Team (MAST); Bridge Building Team (QBBT); Solar Design Team (QSDT); and Space Engineering Team (QSET).