By Mary Pat Pfeil

LABORATORY ON FOUR WHEELS Behind the all-electric van providing student rides at Marquette is the story of a determined student-faculty team.

It started with a simple premise: Turn a gas-powered van from the university’s student transportation fleet into an all-electric vehicle. Nearly four years and thousands of hours later, powered by the creativity and hard work of 41 different students, two faculty advisers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Associate Professor Susan Riedel and Professor George Corliss), and dozens of faculty and industry mentors, Marquette’s eLIMO is now a licensed Wisconsin vehicle, part of a fleet providing safe rides for students from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. nightly. In its off hours, the eLIMO recharges at a station located in a university parking structure.

17 // Laboratory on Four Wheels