UCLA Sustainability runs an annual event called Ecochella, a campus concert that runs entirely on pedal power. Teams of UCLA engineers design and build bicycles that concert-goers ride to keep the concert powered.
For Ecochella 2014, twenty-five teams put in a proposal to a UCLA Electrical Engineering faculty panel. After two design reviews and revisions, our team was one of seven to build a bike for the concert itself. We decided on a belt drive around a tire-less wheel, with an LED voltmeter to act as a speedometer for the rider. This was one of the first actual engineering projects I embarked on in school and – though it was eventually successful – it required a lot of last-minute tweaking and tuning to get right. I learned a lot of lessons from the experience, which I applied to all of my future projects and engineering endeavors.
Our bike, in all its taped up glory, fully operational
My excellent teammate Jonathan making everything work
An incredibly photogenic guy creating 100+ Watts of pedal power with our bike