6/17/2013 Lyanne Alfaro
Written by Lyanne Alfaro
From the valves that clogged the night before the team shipped the cycle to California for the contest, to a flight delay that split the team only hours before the challenge, Wilk remembers every twist and turn of events, as well as the steps that the team had to take to find a solution.
"It was an emotional roller coaster to be honest," said Wilk, who graduated in May 2013 with an Engineering Mechanics degree. "The bike would be working great one night and then have a problem. Every time we would stress we would tell ourselves to stay calm and that we could push through this one problem. Then, we got it fixed."
The Senior Design Project (ME 470) class has offered the Chainless Challenge as a project option for students since 2005. This year, ten universities pitted their chainless cycles against each other in three categories: the Sprint Race (200-meter dash), the Endurance Race (an eight-mile circuit race), and the Efficiency Challenge (a braking and restarting challenge). To be eligible for the race, the cycles had to include a fluid transmission, either hydraulic or pneumatic. A chain connecting the pedal sprocket to the wheel was not allowed.
"We made a large stride since last year’s senior design and we knew a lot of the teams last year and the times they had," Wilk said. "We thought we could compete at that level, but we did not think we would place first. The competition felt really good."
Wilk, who worked on the project for ME 470 said that the results of the contest aside, simply taking part in the challenge provided one of his best design experiences at Illinois.
"It was a huge project," Wilk said. "Engineers are taught to be great at problem-solving. This project proved to all of us that after four years of U of I’s engineering program, we had the necessary problem solving skills. We broke down the complex project into smaller chunks and solved each on our own time-scale we set up and then integrated all of it to make a final product."
He enjoyed working on the Chainless Challenge so much that, as president of the society, Wilk hopes that he or future board members will integrate the challenge into the Society of Engineering Mechanics (SEM).
"It would almost become the Chainless Challenge Club," Wilk said, "so you could have the senior design members working and underclassmen still get the experience of helping out with these projects."
This idea is one of many contributions that Wilk has made to Engineering Mechanics programs and activities. He was recognized for his work with the T & AM Merit Award. The award is not given annually but is awarded to students when their contributions are found to be significant.
Before becoming president of the SEM, Wilk was a member and then project chairman of the society during his junior year. One of SEM's main projects then was to build a hybrid go-kart with hydraulic regenerative braking, which allowed the vehicle to recover braking energy that is usually lost to heat, and then use it to repower the go-kart.
"The vehicle did not compete, we just tested it outside," Wilk said. "It was a good learning experience for people to design. I will say looking back that it is one big problem, that we never had a competition oriented for it. What I am advising the club to do now for projects, is to really have competition involved."
He said that while society members worked hard on the vehicle, Wilk believes that introducing competition in the future will help set deadlines and encourage members to have optimal time management in the design process.
Other projects that Wilk worked on at SEM include the undergraduate research fair. Professors and teaching assistants attended the fair to talk with students about different career styles. Wilk also worked on student outreach at Next Generation School. SEM volunteers visited Next Generation to help seventh graders learn how to use computer-aided drafting (CAD) modules.
Post-graduation, Wilk expects to correspond with the new SEM board and encourage the society to adopt competition. He will attend graduate school and work on solar thermal energy research, focusing on splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen to burn for fuel and ultimately to create electricity.
"The main advantage is that we have such high temperature differences, so we are hoping the efficiency will be much better and if you split water into hydrogen and oxygen, now you have a way of storing solar energy, where in the past it has a been a very difficult thing," Wilk said. "It’s a risky project, but if it works out, it could be a very influential technology."
Wilk said that the collaborative atmosphere at MechSE is one he will never forget.
"Being able to work with your teammates is a great experience, it makes it really enjoyable," Wilk said. "I think that is one of the best and least talked about parts of (the College of) Engineering. Students here are very friendly with each other and everyone works together. It’s really a good atmosphere."