Bringing home the technology
Photos and story by Thomas Reznich

TAKING A SPIN (Left to right) Houghton Lake High School students Cameron Vasher and Wade Norman listen as former classmate Mindy Saxton rattles off specifications during a test ride in the Michigan Tech Challenge X vehicle. Saxton, a sophomore mechanical engineering student, said she has spent over 180 shop hours on the project, which included helping mill the heads of the four-cylinder Ford engine used in the vehicle and helping to install it's electric motor.

Although the study of mechanical engineering might seem pretty dry, students in the Houghton Lake High School Recreational Engine/Marine class learned differently last week when the Michigan Technological University Challenge X team paid a visit.

Mindy Saxton, a 2006 Houghton Lake graduate, steered the team to Houghton Lake as part of its 3,000-mile trip around Lake Michigan, which started on Dec. 20 and ended Jan. 14. Saxton, a sophmore studying mechanical engineering was one of four team members making the trip.

One of four daughters of Roger and Paula Saxton of Houghton Lake, Mindy joined the Michigan Tech Challenge X team during the fall semester of 2006. The former go kart racer and dirt bike rider said team membership required her to perform 20 hours of hands-on shop work, but that by the end of the semester she had in excess of 180 hours.

TEAM EFFORT (Right) Michigan Tech Challenge X team members (left to right) Todd Cimermancic, Andrew Best, Mindy Saxton and Billy Bland stand next to their vehicle at Houghton Lake High School Friday. Cimermancic said the vehicle, which includes many modifications, is worth about $250,000 as it sits.

She is a former class member in Houghton Lake's Recreational Engine/ Marine class, and was joined in Friday's presentation by senior mechanical engineering students Todd Cimermancic (team leader) and Billy Bland and senior electrical engineering student Andrew Best.

The Challenge X competition, sponsored by General Motors, the US Department of Energy and Argonne National Labs, challenges universities across the nation to develop a hybrid version of an existing vehicle which increases the vehicle's fuel economy by 30% by reducing emissions by 50%.

PRESENTING THE CHALLENGE Michigan Tech Challenge X Team Leader Todd Cimermancic (left) answers questions from the Recreational Engine/Marine class at Houghton Lake High School Friday. Cimermancic said students at the seven high schools the team visited during their trip around Lake Michigan were excited by the project and "were amazed that we could be doing something like this in college."

According to Cimermancic, the Michigan Tech vehicle, based on an all-wheel-drive 2005 Chevrolet Equinox, has reached the mileage goal and is being tested on the emissions component. He said the four-year project ends in May, when the same sponsors will begin a new challenge for the country's engineering students called Ecocar. The new goal will be to develop a whole new set of hybrid technologies for passenger vehicles.