hybrid go-cart funding

[keebler303]

Myself and some friends are designing and building a hybrid go-cart for a design lab in school. Anyone have any thoughts on where to look for funding?

Thanks
Matt

[WhiteTiger]

This may be a "dry hole", but how about hitting up Toyota seeing as how they are in the marketplace with a hybrid? All they can do is say no, but it seems to me there'd be some vague chance of getting sponsorship from them since they have a financial iron already in that fire and a bit of low cost spin off publicity might seem worth it to them.


Tiger

[Switcher]

Don't look for cash, Look for material donations, then advertise who gave the donation. All business have excess material!

Their scrap material might be like gold to someone else.

[keebler303]

thanks for the suggestions guys. keep em comin. our professor says we need to figure out some funding before we can start working on it. i guess we need to start talking to some local places and maybe got on the horn with the automakers.

Thanks
Matt

[keithorr]

When I read the title, I thought you meant hybrid funding, not hybrid go kart. Sell a little heroin here, rob some stores there, buy some bearings...

First get the design. Nobody (I know) will give you money for a vivid imagination. Show that you know your stuff and commit it to paper. Any supplier or donor will want to know their money-parts-effort are being used, not wasted.

Local machine shops, auto repair, electronics or computer repair. All the vendors that will have bits and pieces you need in exchange for acknowledgement and thanks.

You'll want to consider playing grownup and prepare a presentation or outline for anyone you want to approach.

Find out how other groups have succeeded or failed.

One thought comes to mind: Why?

What would a hybrid gokart show-prove-demonstrate? That you're all Toy-R-Us kids and you don't want to grow up? What would come from the effort, rides in the parking lot?
Science fair projects should show the possibilities down the road, not just "Gee, that was fun".

[unterhaus]

I think a hybrid go-kart would be a worthwhile effort. Everything else has been hybridized, from cars on up to busses and trucks. Diesel locomotives would be considered hybrids, except as far as I know they haven't used regeneration at least up until recently. A plug in hybrid gives you a lot of flexibility, and its a good student project.

I just realized recently that if you have a 3d rendering of your concept, that actually seems to impress people more than a prototype. I would hope you could generate something that would look good.

[keebler303]

the purpose is three-fold
A) engineering elective for my degree, why not get credit for something that you actually have an interest in?

B) give myself and others involved in the project the real world experience of seeing something through from concept to design to prototype. through this we gain experience in what will likely be the next biggest thing to impact society, running out of oil, if i went to work for toyota building hybrids i bet they would be interested to know that i built a hybrid in class. through all of this we (the next generation of engineers) can become familiar with some of the challenges facing alternative energy as we will undoubtedly be involved in overcoming those challenges.

C) bring attention to the hybrid concept on campus as well as the surrounding area. show what it can do, that hybrids aren't slow and can be "cool"

BTW: this is not a hey look what i built but rather a foundation on which to study fuel efficiency, aerodynamics, rolling friction, weight savings, etc.
the gokart may also serve to explore other alternative energy candidates such as solar, strictly electric, and maybe some fun stuff like peltier devices as well.

Matt

[JFettig]

I did a super mileage car my senior year in highschool, It sounds similar to what your thinking. My first suggestion is to at least not call it a 'go cart' but something else not necessarily relating to a toy. I personally dont see any purpose to a hybrid go-cart, but maybe something like the super mileage car I built a couple years ago. Here at my college theres a team making a hybrid snowmobille. I am part of a group making a mini formula car.

Will this project be for any sort of organization? Maybe take a look at a few organizations and see if you cant modify your idea to fit inside their competitions or something like that. The organization that the formula car team I am on is called SAE, Society of Automotive Engineers, I think the clean snowmobille competition might be part of SAE also.

I believe some colleges do a similar project like the super mileage car that I worked on, you could take a look at that.


Jon

[fizzissist]

Some questions...
What department?
Is there a student club in that department that gets some nominal funding from the "Associated Student Union/Body" or the department?

Depending on which college you're at, the Department of Engineering Technology has quite the machine shop. At Wright, there's a ... milling machine. Sorry.

There's a lot of grant money floating around for student enhancement, possibly from the National Science Foundation. Someone is in charge of those monies, just need to find out who.

Another angle, related to that last, is outreach. By building your project, it could be used as an outreach tool for getting K-12 students interested in science. Drag the thing around to the grade schools to help recruit.

Your profile says Dayton, so I went digging for ya. Here's a list of potential contributors to the cause!
http://www.dtma.org/directory/regular.htm

Don't forget these guys.....banks and contractors love their logos on high profile projects too!!
http://www.dtma.org/directory/associate.htm

Finally, always keep in mind that if you get donations, give the donor credit. It's cheap insurance you can go back and ask for more!

Tried the ever-popular "Used xxx-Engineering Book Sale" ?
Hit the local power company up? They're usually good for $500 or so that they write off as PR.

[keebler303]

Department mechanical
Machine shop is not a problem.
The dean of the school of mech and aero said we need to find the funding so i don't think there is money around for use. he would hook us up if there were.

I think the project is going to shift to a supermileage vehicle as Jon suggested. I hadn't heard of that before and i think it would be a good thing to do. With the SAE name on it we are bound to get more funding.
Here is a link to it.http://students.sae.org/competitions/supermileage/
Fizz
Thanks for the advice looks like a good direction to head. I also work at a composites company so i should be able to get hooked up with all the stuff i need for the shell of the thing.

Thanks guys

Matt

[JFettig]

Sounds like a great plan.
Heres a couple pics of the car I built, if you want more information on it, I have a little.


Jon

[strombom]

Shell hosts a super-mileage competition: http://www.shelleco-marathon.com/

JFettig: Nice to see another formula student competitor here at the forum !

I am on Chalmers Formula Student 2006 team: http://www.me.chalmers.se/formula/2006/html/index.php

Our 2005 team is racing in FSAE West this year, is that were you will compete?

We will be competing in England this summer.