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eptermber 3, 2013 arbiteronline.com
@Wadapatch
By taking the record for the world’s fastest vegetable oil-powered vehicle in 2011 and being awarded the Trail Blazer award by President Kustra in 2012, the Greenspeed Club at Boise State is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Greenspeed is a multifaceted club open to Boise State students from all degrees. Dave Schenker, a junior mechanical engineering student, founded the club along with four other students and one semihesitant faculty advisor in 2010. John Gardner, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, has been the faculty advisor for Greenspeed since the beginning. According to Gardner, he had no personal interest in land speed racing (or this project) other than that it had an element of sustainability in it, which was vegetable oil as a substitution for petroleumbased fuels. It was Schenker’s dedication and confidence which convinced Gardner to get involved. Gardner explained there were many barriers between where Schenker was, and what he wanted to achieve, and said that the bureaucracy of the university shouldn’t be one
of them. “This is somebody we should be encouraging,” Gardner said. “We should find a way for him to be able to do this. It fits well with mechanical engineering and he (Schenker) clearly has a strong vision for this.” After gaining approval and with their newly found faculty advisor, Greenspeed was born. “I started it (the club) to provide an opportunity for my fellow students to connect their classroom education to real world projects,” Schenker said. “Our main project so far has been to build the world’s fastest vegetable oil-powered vehicle and we have been successful in that goal.” Schenker went on to explain the club is now gearing toward other projects which are less massive and more accessible. Although vegetable oil is a good source of energy, vegetable oil is not a good fuel, according to Schenker. “We are simply using vegetable oil as a technology demonstrator, showing that this plant based substance, that is completely renewable and carbon neutral, is capable of beating a petroleum record,” Schenker said. “This is what we’re shooting for, we want to eventually beat the petroleum record with vegetable oil and we haven’t been
Students make transfer credits count Ryan Thorne @RyanThorne86
Students who transfer to Boise State must make sure their previously earned credits are accepted by Boise State. Associate Registrar Mandy Nelson is part of Boise State’s efforts to determine what classes and credits from other schools make the cut at the university level. “Basically, what we do is ask admissions for a list so we can find out what our top 50 schools that we are having students transfer from,” Nelson said. With this list, Nelson and her staff at the registrars office asks each educational department personnel to review courses offered at other schools and to determine their value at Boise State. “We want to do the schools we know students are coming
from,” Nelson said. “It doesn’t make any sense to do a full evaluation of Harvard if we have only one Harvard transfer every year.” Students who do not receive full credit for transfers can blame the academic scheduling of previously attended schools. “Those who receive a partial transfer, like a 2.66 out of three don’t get full credit because they may have taken the class in a quarter period instead of one of two semesters as courses are offered at Boise State,” Nelson said. “If you are going from semester to semester, your credits are going to transfer.”
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Greenspeed met its goal to create the world’s fastest vegetable oil powered car. able to do that yet, but we’re inching closer to it.” This new goal and their new projects, according to Schenker, are in place in hopes of broadening their member base and getting more students involved. “My original vision was to bring students from all the way across campus together to work on these energy based projects, because they really are multifaceted,” Schenker said. “Sure, there’s lots of engi-
neering that takes place, but no matter how good the engineering is you have to have good communications and marketing people to get that idea out. You have to have good design folks to help convey your ideas — a picture is worth a thousand words.” Greenspeed hasn’t had many other students involved, but would like to expand with students from every department, which according to Gardner, is of
great benefit. “Anytime we get a chance to augment a student’s education beyond the formal curriculum and do it in a way that’s meaningful in their professional life, also meaningful in society, that’s a great win,” Gardner said. “It’s great for the students and that’s something we, as faculty, as administrators, should be looking for ways to do that.” Gardner added what this
means for the university and the students. “I think when you have a student club operating at this venue, at this level of competition, setting a world speed record, obviously that’s great publicity for us,” Gardner said. “It shows that our students are the best in the world.” To get involved check out their website: greenspeed.me or visit the ASBSU site for further details.
Other credits like religious studies courses or those meant to prepare students for college level programs. “Some schools may award credit for a course that we consider remedial here, like remedial math, or remedial english, one of those review type courses like Math 25,” Nelson said. Technical programs may not transfer either, but according to Nelson, it doesn’t hurt to contact the registrar’s office to double check. Nelson said Boise State now has an electronic database system through which department heads can quickly and easily review courses from other higher education institutions. The Transfer Equivalency System allows students to look up their previous schools on the registrar website to determine credit transfer eligibility. “It’s a lot easier using this automated system,”Nelson said. “We used to make photocopies of all the Idaho catalogues and we would send
out giant stacks of paper and they would have to hand write everything in.” For international students looking to transfer to Boise State, the process may take up to six weeks, as Boise State uses an outside service to determine the value of international credits. Those with prior learning
in certain educational fields may be given the option to satisfy course or degree requirements with satisfactory test and exam scores as part of the Credit for Prior Learning Policy on campus. Boise State transfer student William Peralta has spent some time on the registrar’s website and
is expecting his credits from the College of Western Idaho to transfer over in full. “I talked with a counselor at CWI way before I thought about transferring,” Peralta said. “I didn’t want to take classes that didn’t count here and I wanted to go to school at Boise State.”
If you are going from semester to semester, your credits are going to transfer. —Mandy Nelson
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Greenspeed wins with vegetable oil fuel
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