{"id":105537,"date":"2021-06-22T11:15:33","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T16:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=105537"},"modified":"2021-08-30T11:40:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:40:58","slug":"engineering-students-create-electric-bike-sharing-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/engineering-students-create-electric-bike-sharing-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering Students Create Electric Bike-Sharing Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recent UM engineering graduates (from left) George McAskill, Brent Dalton and Parker Hardy announce their vision of Shark Cycle and demonstrate how the e-bikes operate at their senior design presentation event. Photo by Thomas Graning\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/p><\/div>\n

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Three recent University of Mississippi<\/a> graduates have developed an electric bike-sharing program in collaboration with multiple university departments to help students, faculty and staff conveniently travel across campus.<\/p>\n

The program, dubbed “Shark Cycle,” is a brainchild of Brent Dalton (BSEE 21), of Grenada; Parker Hardy (BSEE 21), of San Antonio; and George McAskill (BSCpE 21), of Marietta, Georgia.<\/p>\n

As part of their yearlong capstone project before they graduated, the engineering<\/a> students formulated the concept as a way to offer easy travel to the campus community, as well as to try to limit the number of vehicles that need to be parked on campus every day.<\/p>\n

After discussing the concept and receiving input from various departments across campus, including the Department of Parking and Transportation<\/a>, the three students set out to create a program that would offer a new means of transportation at UM, enabling students to use electric bicycles at their convenience and implement a more efficient method to move around campus.<\/p>\n

“There are too many cars coming to campus,” Hardy said. “We had to figure out a way to offer an alternative form of transportation. We specially chose e-bikes because of Oxford’s hilly terrain and motor assist.”<\/p>\n

The university already offers students an opportunity to rent bicycles on campus. However, the apparatus designed by the engineering students transforms a regular bike into an electric bike.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A refurbished bicycle for the Shark Cycle program includes a kit in the front basket that enables users to track and unlock the e-bike for a ride around campus. Photo by Thomas Graning\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/p><\/div>\n

Once all equipment is attached to a retrofitted bicycle, the kit provides riders a lighter, more pleasurable trip with the help of motor assistance.<\/p>\n

Refurbished bicycles from Rebel Pedals<\/a>, the traditional bike-sharing program offered on campus, will be retrofitted with the kits to create fully electric bikes that students, faculty and staff can use by scanning a university ID card.<\/p>\n

“This team has done a great job,” said Barry Muldrey, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering<\/a>, who assigned the project to the students. “They went from zero to functional in a course of practically one semester.<\/p>\n

“Technologically, it is very well in the reach of our students to build these from scratch; this proves their ability to operate an internal bike-share system.”<\/p>\n

The kit includes a propulsion system made up of an electric motor, battery and controller, as well as a rigorous hardware system with features such as a global positioning system, a radio-frequency identification system reader, and a geofence that is connected to campus Wi-Fi and has a backup long-term evolution, or LTE, system for wireless broadband internet.<\/p>\n

These features allow riders to do a number of things including locate the bikes across campus with exact coordinates, use a key to unlock the bicycle, and travel across campus freely and smoothly.<\/p>\n

The students initially imagined building sensors to measure the number of vehicles entering and exiting a parking lot, so they worked with officials in Parking and Transportation to collect data and analyzed the results.<\/p>\n

“I was interested in the bike-sharing project as soon as the three students reached out,” said Sam Patterson, director of parking and transportation. “We can find an e-bike company like Bird, but the fact that this is home-grown by students for students is a legitimate option for people to use for their everyday transportation.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Parker Hardy, a recent Ole Miss engineering graduate from Marietta, Georgia, demonstrates how the e-bike operates as he rides along All American Drive on campus. Photo by Thomas Graning\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/p><\/div>\n

The students who created the project envision an environment where Ole Miss students might travel to the Oxford campus by bus, then jump on a Shark Cycle and arrive at class within minutes. The goal is to launch the project on campus in the fall 2022 semester.<\/p>\n

“One more group of students is going to fine-tune this project this upcoming, next year,” Muldrey said. “This will be an ongoing program that can involve different disciplines of engineering, the Center for Manufacturing Excellence<\/a>, and be an organization that is mostly student-run to produce these bikes, as well as manage, improve and repair them over time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Three recent University of Mississippi graduates have developed an electric bike-sharing program in collaboration with multiple university departments to help students, faculty and staff conveniently travel across campus. The program, dubbed “Shark Cycle,” is a brainchild of Brent Dalton (BSEE 21), of Grenada; Parker Hardy (BSEE 21), of San Antonio; and GeorgeRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":105705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[221,199,1297],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nEngineering Students Create Electric Bike-Sharing Program - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/engineering-students-create-electric-bike-sharing-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Engineering Students Create Electric Bike-Sharing Program - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. \u2013 Three recent University of Mississippi graduates have developed an electric bike-sharing program in collaboration with multiple university departments to help students, faculty and staff conveniently travel across campus. 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