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PHOTO: Andrei Divinagarcia
PHOTO: Aidan Macdonald PHOTO: Andrei Divinagarcia
PHOTO: Elena Soboleva
Alex Cherniavskii
operations director and mechatronic student
Do you have a need for speed? Since 2017, Team Phantom has been designing fully-operational electric vehicles for racing competitions. The club was started by students majoring in mechatronics at SFU — a branch of engineering specialized in mechanical, electrical, and electronic elements of building. The club originally started out building electric go-karts but switched to assembling electric cars from scratch. The team enters their car into electric competitions hosted by the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), who also put on other competitions as part of their Collegiate Design Series. The Peak spoke with operations director and mechatronic SFU student Alex Cherniavskii about how the club strives to make their cars as sustainable as possible. Since the cars run on electricity and don’t produce any emissions, they are “cleaner than a traditional combustion-engine.” This helps the team demonstrate that crafting smaller scale electrical vehicles is practical, and helps prospective engineers build the skills necessary to pursue a career in sustainability. “We already have club alumni that started their own cleantech company, Moment Energy, and we have both current and past club members currently working at industry-leading electric transportation and energy companies,” said Cherniavskii, who currently works as an intern for Tesla. As the next generation of engineers, Team Phantom is mindful of what they can do during their projects to limit emissions. “It will be our responsibility to ensure that we do things to ensure the integrity of our future as a collective of people that live on this planet [ . . . ] We all know what’s coming, so it is our job to recognize that we can apply ourselves to improve the outcome as much as we can.” Part of using greener building methods also means picking and choosing when to use resources. Instead of competing annually, Team Phantom participates in races every other year. In order to design a car from the ground up to race every two years, Team Phantom is split into four sub-team — controls, dynamics, frame/ aero, and power — and a business team to seek out sponsorships to make their cars. The control team is the driver’s right-hand man. They build the communication system the driver uses to remain in control of the vehicle at all times. The dynamics team is the car’s eyes and ears.
Meet the SFU club building electric racing cars from scratch
The team’s designs keep sustainability at the forefront of their building plan
WRITTEN BY ISABELLA URBANI
They make sure integral parts of the car such as the breaking and steering system are good to go. The frame/aero team give a hand to the car’s structural design, including its bodywork. And lastly, the power team is the heart of the system, constructing and managing the electrical system of the car to power the motor. Once a vision for the car has been assembled, the team gathers together to weld and assemble the metal parts. Due to the team’s two-year design focus, the team will not be competing at this year’s Formula SAE Electric competition, but is preparing for next year’s. They are close to assembling the car, with plans to test drive in the fall. When ready, the car will be judged in comparison to other entries from schools across the world based on two main categories: static and dynamic. The static category consists of a technical inspection of the car, a presentation by the team to a panel of judges, a cost and manufacturing component to evaluate the team’s business savviness, and a design event. The dynamic portion, on the other hand, looks at the on-track racing abilities of the car in three races: acceleration on a straight path, skidpad event for evaluating turns, and the car’s overall performance. Team Phantom relies on a plethora of sponsors to get the resources needed for their car each competition, including support from the Simon Fraser Student Society and companies such as Race Energy Performance. But when the club isn’t bringing their creations to life, they are visiting local middle schools and high schools with building challenges (such as hydrogen-fuel powered mini-cars) to inspire young STEM students. On their website, Team Phantom explains they do this because “to teach is to learn twice.” The club is true to this mantra by accepting all student members, regardless of experience, to partake in the building process. “It takes an immense amount of engineering work to engineer a good but safe racing vehicle, so it’s rewarding to see the design once it is built,” said Cherniavskii. “But I think the most important part is the amount of learning that happens during the process, as that is what contributes to long term future career success and builds skills that lead to being able to do even more technical things down the road.” You can find more information on Team Phantom by heading to their website and checking out their Instagram page for updates on their latest design.
PHOTO: Gabriel Soares
Top cafés in Burnaby to work at this summer
Perfect places to hunker down, get some work done, and enjoy delicious treats
WRITTEN BY YELIN GEMMA LEE
Most Vancouverites can appreciate the summer because of our city’s rainy disposition. So, it can feel unfair to have to work or study in front of a screen all day while your friends are stockpiling Vitamin D exposure. At least once a week, I like to work long hours in a cozy café because I can focus better outside my apartment and I get to treat myself at the same time. These are my most frequented study spots in Burnaby, with reliable wifi and plenty of wall plugs to charge up.
01 Hiel Cafe
7885 6th Street, Burnaby
This is arguably the best café to study at that I’ve found so far in the Greater Vancouver area. It has it all — high-quality food, delicious drinks, and an airy atmosphere with lots of natural light. The café seating area is well spaced out which is nice for COVID-19 related concerns. The food and drinks here are something to look forward to, with plenty of savoury and sweet homemade goods! They have an awesome selection of made-to-order sandwiches, poké bowls, and giant soufflé pancakes. If you’re more so in the mood for a sweet treat, their homemade cookies and cakes are swoon-worthy. Hiel has take-out options for their food and drinks, and they are on Uber for delivery as well.
I haven’t had issues with feeling like I was overstaying, even when I stay for five hours at a time on heavy work days. This might be because the café is in a rather quiet neighbourhood near the New Westminster/Burnaby city limits. I guess the awkward location is the one downside, but because of this, it’s never been overcrowded when I’ve gone in.
Illustration: Alyssa Umbal / The Peak
02 Juillet Cafe Cafe Sweets and Beans
206-4341 North Road, Burnaby
If you’re looking for a café with great Korean music and immaculate vibes, Juillet is the place to go. The large windows of this café overlook the North Road Koreatown which is a short walk from Lougheed Station. It has a wood-based design concept, with plants sporadically incorporated into the space. When you enter the building to access the café entrance, you are greeted with flowers and essential oils spilling over from Aromatears, the neighbouring fragrance and flower store. To your left, you’ll find a jewelry kiosk with affordable hypoallergenic jewellery from Korea and a photobooth. You can really feel the warm and interconnected environment of the plaza community as soon as you walk in.
Juillet Cafe has lovely homemade pastries and cakes, and their coffee tastes great. They offer a couple of sandwiches now but I haven’t tried them as I usually leave the cafe for lunch across the street at Kimbap Cheonguk, a casual Korean street food joint. The downside of this cafe is that it can be hard to find a seat depending on the time you go. To combat this problem of potential customers leaving after seeing the place packed with camped-out students, management recently applied a two-hour maximum seating limit. If you find the place full when you arrive, there’s another cute café in the plaza beside Hannam Supermarket called Standing Egg Coffee.
Illustration: Yining Zhou / The Peak
03
5152 Kingsway, Burnaby
A quick walk from either Royal Oak or Metrotown Skytrain stations, Cafe Sweets and Beans offers exactly what its name suggests and more. They have a fairly large space and it is clean and quiet. They are so consistent in this that I held my tutoring lessons here for two years and never worried about not finding a seat. They have a tiffany blue theme going on with their branding which I find strangely calming. Cafe Sweets and Beans calls itself a “cafeteria-style restaurant,” and although they serve pasta, pizzas, and sandwiches, I definitely consider it to be a café environment. You won’t feel uncomfortable pulling out your laptop or readings here, and I’ve had no problem staying for several hours at a time.
Their cheesecakes are my favourite in the city, and I always order an iced injeolmi latte, which is based on a traditional Korean rice cake. I haven’t seen this specialty drink anywhere else and I’m obsessed. If you’re getting hungry as you study, their truffle oil pasta is delicious. You can also head right upstairs to Sushi Oyama, one of my go-to sushi places in a “converted heritage house.”
