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PrincetonUniversity
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Human-Powered Vehicles. By the time students left
the second session of MAE 199 this fall, they were
sweating.
That wasn't because they had spent
the last couple hours steeped in problems of physics, fluid
dynamics and materials science. It had more to do with
sitting on a stationary bicycle and pedaling madly while
talking about physics, fluid dynamics and materials
science.
That's the way it is in Barrie
Royce's Human-Powered Vehicles, a class in which the bicycle
is as much a teaching tool as the blackboard. The course
explores the machines humans have devised to leverage their
own strength and propel themselves faster and farther than
their own two feet could carry them. It ranges from dugout
canoes to human-powered airplanes but focuses on the
bicycle.
"The idea is to get students to
think about science and engineering as something that's part
of real life," says Royce, who is professor of mechanical
and aerospace engineering.
• MAE 199 Human
Powered Transportation
• Dept of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
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