In a remarkable fusion of faith, science, and environmental stewardship, Rabbi Yitzhak (Joel) Miller has become a leading figure in the Stanford Hybrid Car Challenge.
Here is a news details on the THE STANFORD DAILY:
Answering a challenge from Ford Motor Company to build the best hybrid electric car, a group of Stanford students is working on a new design that could change the the way Americans transport themselves.
In September, Ford announced a competition that called for university students throughout North America to develop attractive, feasible and efficient hybrid cars.
About 100 Stanford students, mostly undergraduate engineers, are already working on their version. SHARP the Stanford Hybrid Automobile Research Project - will convert a standard 1992 Ford Escort station wagon into a hybrid-powered machine that runs on both electricity and gas.
Junior Joel Miller, coordinator of the Stanford project, said SHARP's goal is to have a drive able car by the end of the calendar year - producing a hybrid that will look, feel and drive just like a Ford Escort, but run as quietly as a bicycle.
Ford donated the car, but almost all of its working parts have to come out, said sophomore Amanda Svensson, SHARP's fund-raising coordinator. The group started stripping the car last Sunday, she said.
Converting the car will cost about $200,000. SHARP has to come up with its own supplies to rebuild the car, but much of the equipment is not available on the market. Those parts will be custom-built by the students and put in over the year.
SHARP is depending on donations from companies and dormitories to supply all the funds.
By December, the inside of the car will be transformed, but the outside will look exactly like the old Escort.
In June 1993, the team will display its model in Detroit. It will be tested and judged on a list of performance items such as range, noise, stability, acceleration, cost and design. Ford is offering total prizes of $75,000.
But Miller, a mechanical engineering major, said money is not the reason most students are involved in the project. Most sim- ply want to be a part of something that could have a significant impact on the auto world and the environment, he said.
Doug Stukenbork, a Ford spokesperson, said the primary goal of the contest is college relations.
"Hopefully this will help us recruit, to get some top talent," he said. "But it's obviously a significant piece of transportation history. We're bringing students to the forefront with us."
Hybrid electric cars may soon replace gas-powered vehicles as a realistic option until electric cars are feasible.
Electric cars best meet the growing demand for quieter, clean- er-burning cars that don't use up natural resources. But to meet the standards of gas-powered cars in distance, acceleration and performance, the electric car would take 10,000 pounds of batteries.
The hybrid vehicle will require only 800 pounds of batteries. Whether gasoline or batteries power the hybrid's motor, the wires still send out electric power to turn the wheels. So, hybrid models have just as much acceleration and speed as standard gas engines. A hybrid car is the first step toward the car of the future. For trips of less than 60 miles, a battery powers the electric motor.
On a longer trip, the gas engine produces electricity which powers the electric motor. After returning home, a standard wall outlet will recharge the battery and the car will be ready to drive again in about six hours.
The hybrid car is easier on the environment than regular gas engines. It causes no pollution unless it uses the gas engine for longer trips. Since more than 80 percent of all automobile trips are under 60 miles, most driving will be pollution-free.
Even on longer trips, the gas engine runs more efficiently and causes less pollution than a standard gas engine.
All engines have a certain peak level of efficiency. Regular motors are less efficient in the city when cars start and stop frequently because the speed of the motor is changing constantly.
The gas engine in SHARP's vehicle can be held at its peak speed even if the car is changing speed, because the batteries can compensate for power changes that are needed.
The hybrid is cost-efficient as well. Electricity is simply much cheaper than gasoline. A 15-mile trip in a hybrid car would cost about two cents per mile and cause no pollution, while a gasolinepowered car, for the same trip, would cost three times as much and send about 40 grams of pollutants into the atmosphere.
For a 200-mile trip, gas cars cost two times as much and pro- duce twice the pollution. Stukenbork said Ford must figure out how to mass-produce low-emission cars, and fast. By 1998, manufacturers California will be required by law to make two percent of all the vehicles they produce pollution-free.
The most promising solution to that problem- the electric car -will not be viable soon enough, Stukenbork said.
University President Gerhard Casper takes a spin in Stanford's new student-built Hybrid Electric Vehicle behind Maples Pavilion last week. Casper chauffeured former University President Donald Kennedy and Dean of Engineering James Gibbons in the battery-powered Fort Escort.
Following the indirect-cost controversy that bruised Stan- ford's public image and led to a damaging round of budget cuts, Gerhard Casper will seek in his inaugural address tomorrow to "set a new tone" for the University one that finally shirks the political baggage of the past two years by reemphasizing teaching and research, faculty members said.
The first Stanford president in 25 years to be brought in from the outside, Casper is unscathed by the indirect-cost controversy and will be a credible spokesperson for Stanford as it seeks to recover from it, they said.
"He inherits a previous problem that is not of his making and he is not identified with," said Gary Ernst, dean of the School of Earth Sciences. " So, he has an opportunity, in a way, to make a fresh start for the University.”
The inauguration, scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow in Frost Amphitheater, will mark Casper's first public address to the Stanford community.
Criticized in the past few years for the indirect-cost controversy and for its top-heavy administration that overshadowed faculty concerns, Stanford must re-emphasize teaching and research, faculty said.
But they say Casper's first public action earlier this month, a major streamlining designed to reduce the role of the administration, has already sent a powerful message on that subject- and they expect his speech tomorrow to underscore it.
"If I were the new president, I would certainly make that message loud and clear," said History Prof. Albert Camarillo, associate dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences.
He added that as an outsider, Casper "will be given the room to to say, 'I wasn't involved in this; I want to lead Stanford in a new direction. This is my vision.’ "
But Ernst said Casper's emphasis on teaching and research is nothing new former president Donald Kennedy had consistently sought to stress that point, but his public message was drowned out by the indirect-cost controversy.
"It would be an unfair criticism of Don Kennedy, who is a terrific leader, to say that we lost sight of our true mission," he said.
Instead, Casper's restatement of Stanford's academic emphasis is simply a way to "fend off the wolves" after indirect costs, Ernst said.
Kennedy and Casper "are very similar," Ernst said. "Don just had the misfortune to have this problem arise while he was president."
On the eve of Casper's inauguration, "there's a tremendous amount of good will" among the faculty, said English Prof. Albert Gelpi, a member of the Faculty Senate. He added that "the morale of the faculty has picked up" since Casper's appointment and his address tomorrow "will be a very good occasion" to solidify that support.
Faculty members have been encouraged by Casper's "initial moves and gestures," Gelpi said. "What we want to hear now is his vision of the University."
But Jean Fetter, Casper's top assistant, said it would be unfair to expect "instant solutions" to all of Stanford's problems in a 20- minute address.
"It will clearly give some sense of Gerhard Casper the president, and it will certainly set a tone," she said. "But there will be a lot of work to be done after the inauguration. There is always a lot of work to be done around here."