A friend sent me a link to a Wired article with photos of the Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge at the NASA-Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, April 13-15, 2007. The event was a contest for college engineering teams sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

I sent the link to Mary Arneson, who runs velomobiling.com, and she posted some comments regarding the event, including this one:

Disappointingly, for those of us who are trying to raise awareness of velomobiles, the whole event seemed to pass without the word “velomobile” ever coming up. The mechanical engineering students could probably learn something from the velomobile industry, and human-powered vehicles have a lot to gain from new technology and insights, but the two worlds seem to run on parallel tracks and never to meet.

This separation isn’t limited to the United States; European educational institutions also sponsor HPV challenges and projects without seeming to notice a thriving velomobile industry under their noses.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Biking/Walking, Science.