El-Beetle
Seven engineer students at GUC have developed the first el-beetle in Norway! -This have been much fun, tiresome and rewarding, says the students.
Nils Turi, Atle Bjerke, Daniel Ålien, Jonas Langeland, Jo Øyen, Kjetil Kvammen Kolset and Bjørn Dammand are in their second year of study in Bachelor in Engineering – Machine . Since September 2010 they have spent evenings and weekends on renovating an old beetle from a worn out renovation object to an upgraded standard with electrical motor.
-We have learned a lot, both on the technical level and within project management. We are bringing very useful experiences back in our engineering education. We have functioned as a small firm during the whole process and we have worked up a larger mechanical and electrical understanding which will be an advantage for us out in work and in project management.
The seven students are preoccupied with the environmental aspects with turning an old car into an el-car. -Today there is a throwaway mentality, but it doesn’t have to be like that. This project is an example of that. Sustainability and recycling in different forms will be more and more important in the years to come, so this is an important project for us, the students claims.
The seven students are now going to write a report about the project. When this report is done and approved, the student will be approved in the course “ Advanced Project Learning in Business ” with ten credits. -It has been fun to solve real engineer tasks where there are no fixed answers. It is fun that GUC dared to invest in us, says the students.
Class-coordinator and project manager Magnar Eikerol praises the students. -They have really been working hard to succeed with this el-car, and they have without doubt learned a lot about everything from cooperation in team to resource exploitation.
They are now working on getting the el-car registered at The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, so GUC can use it for different purposes. This car is a part of Gjøvik University College’s emphasis on sustainability and recycling.
Photo at the top: Photo by Daniel Ålien
Photo at the bottom: In front from left: Nils Turi, Atle Bjerke and Jonas Langeland. Behind from left: Daniel Ålien and Jo Øyen