Students race electric cars at Kehoe Grand Prix

SHELBY -- The parking lot at the Kehoe Center at North Central State College in Shelby was filled with electric cars racing in circles on Friday afternoon. It was the fourth year for the Kehoe Grand Prix, where high school students from Richland, Ashland and Crawford counties and College-NOW students race electric cars that they built.

The College-NOW Engineering Academy is a partnership between the Pioneer Career and Technology Center and North Central State College. Students enroll full-time in college, completing their junior and senior years of high school and earn both high school and college credits. At the end of each students' senior year, students receive an associate degree in applied engineering technology.

"We wanted to set up a program where we would be able to teach electric and mechanical vehicle designs, but also it's all about projects," said Mike Beebe, the assistant professor of mechanical engineering at North Central State College and one of the organizers of the Kehoe Grand Prix. "This is one project that is kind of fun for people. It's taking what they've learned and how they apply it to a regular project."

Competing in the Kehoe Grand Prix for the students is part of their capstone projects. Each team built an electric vehicle in their own artistic way. "There are different capstone classes," said Beebe. "We have different ones like the mousetrap races, crash dummy, wheelchair with a crash dummy, wheelchair carrier and a can crusher."

The race featured four students per team, six teams with two drivers and each group had an hour to race around the course as many times as they could. For this project, students were required to conduct research and design the type of vehicle they wanted to build, including focusing on the frame, steering, braking, gearing, power and drive options that would produce the best performance.

Asked if the Kehoe Grand Prix is more of a teaching opportunity or an event where students can be creatively free, Beebe said, "It's both, because you set some rules and it's only 16 weeks, so there is a lot of work to do. They have to do a theory, a final report, a presentation and drawings. They have to do all that. They also have to manage the project and we meet once a week to look at the schedule, tasks and everything. So it's learning how to run a project, as well as using some engineering."

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Students race electric cars at Kehoe Grand Prix