The Engineering Club completed their first major project of the year with the showcasing of their new Pedal Car. It drove in it’s first race as the leadoff car in the final chariot race at ranger day for all to witness this past October. The pedal car marked the first of many awesome inventions the Engineer club looks to accomplish this year and for many more. With a team of about fifteen to twenty, the Engineers met their Ranger Day deadline, and a good thing they did!
The Jesuit Engineering Society is a club that consists of about forty students led by Ms. Carver and Mr. Howard. The club took off with high hopes last year, looking to expand student’s knowledge of engineering and creating practical inventions to better our school and community. The Pedal Car Project began early last June and into 
July with lead Engineer Nathan Low, but it was put on hold to wait until the school year to begin before picking the project back up. Ms. Carver explained, “We gave the boys dimension sets but no clear step by step instructions. We wanted the guys to create something on their own and think outside the box.” With no clear instructions, it was up to a group of around twenty students who chose to work on this project to put their minds together to create Jesuit’s first operating pedal car. However, even with dimension sets, which give them the basic idea of how large or wide certain aspects of the car should be, Michael Lanham ’15 said that “sometimes even the sets were confusing and we often built what made the most sense rather than try to follow directions.” This was Ms. Carver’s goal, and she claimed that “it was awesome to see the guys just throw away the manual sometimes and just create whatever made sense to them for completing their specific task.”
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he car was made up of very simple objects. The majority of the car is made up of PVC pipes, which serve as the frame of the car. The PVC was reinforced by metal rods and some fence wire while still trying to keep the car as light as possible but keeping the ride safe. Once the frame was complete, the team added wheels, wooden pedals, and chains which all worked in unity to complete the pedal car. Johnny Balok ’16 said, “We had a pretty tight deadline since Ranger Day was only a little over a month into the school year, but everyone on the pedal car team made contributions when needed and it ended up being a big accomplishment for us.” While the engineer’s completed the car in around three short months, the final product ended up being a great spectacle at the Ranger Day events. Balok then went on to say that “everyone on the team was thrilled when the pedal car blew past 1000 plus students and we got to see our hard work paying off.” However, according to Ms. Carver due to last minute mix ups, “the pedal car was never actually tested before Ranger Day,” she shared with a grin on her face. “We honestly didn’t really know how it was going to hold up when it ran it’s course.” Luckily, for the engineering team and spectators, everyone got to enjoy a smooth drive-by from our newest school automobile.
Despite their successful first run, the pedal car team is far from finished, with their newest invention yet still in the works. Alex Luzarraga ’15 says that “the best is yet to come. We plan on putting in a motor and headlights and see if we can get the car ‘street-worthy.'” While we probably won’t be seeing Jesuit’s Pedal Car cruising down Inwood Road at 45mph, we can hope to see it around campus for everyday miscellaneous activities and joyrides. However, the Jesuit Engineers aren’t satisfied with just one awesome invention. According to Ms. Carver, “We have two other projects that we are looking to complete this year and each being unique and helpful to the Jesuit community in their own way.” The first project, their biggest, is the completion of a fully operational wind turbine that Jesuit could use for alternative energy with professional inspections and approval by the administration. Ms. Carver was hopeful that representatives from IBM would guest lecture the club for a close look on what the guys are looking to accomplish. Also, the Engineer Society is looking to complete a scale model of our very own “28 acres.” This model would be a mirror image of Jesuit in a 3D display of our school that the club hoped to put at the entrance for all students and visitors to admire. Harwood K. Smith (HKS) architecture is in communication with the club for a possible guest lecture about all the nuances and details that go along with a scale model.
The future is bright for the Jesuit Engineering Society and many of the guys look to have big hopes for upcoming projects as well as pride for past ones such as the pedal car. The pedal car brought the student section to its feet when seeing what a group of twenty guys did while making it look so cool. The club looks to continue their success in future projects and urges anyone interested in joining to give it a shot. The guys continue to look for tough yet rewarding projects to undertake in order to help out Jesuit as well as further learn about the awesome things one can create with engineering.
