Catching Up With The Guys At AeroVelo: Road to Battle Mountain

For those of you who attended our SolidWorks Launch event last Fall, you’ll recall our lineup of inspiring guest speakers and their ingenious capacity to challenge the status quo. One of our speakers was Cameron Robertson of AeroVelo, who spoke to us about the power of innovation and about further fortifying their message that nothing is impossible. I recently sat down with Cameron to check in on their latest Human Powered Vehicle project the Speekbike. The current world human-powered land speed record holds at 133km/h--team AeroVelo is designing to surpass that record to reach speeds of 140-145km/h. The challenge: Compiling years of trials and research to design a world record-breaking Speedbike, starting completely from scratch. Along with a small army of University of Toronto student interns, the guys will be working persistently throughout the summer to see this project through to completion and compete at Battle Mountain, Nevada this September. Cameron and Todd will be testing the limits of engineering rigour focusing on:

Aerodynamics
Rolling resistance
Drivetrain
Weight and structure
Pilot performance (aka Todd)

The team are in the early stages of tackling the aerodynamics by testing materials, finishes, lines among many other tests. They are using SolidWorks throughout the project and are looking forward to the improved modeling and shape contouring of SolidWorks 2014, which allows finer control over designs in the most critical phases. First things first: how do they plan to fail? No, that’s not a typo; more so along the lines of a mantra. When starting any project, the duo always look to how they plan to innovate, what mistakes have been made along the way, how others can learn from them, and how they plan to fail. Planning to fail is nothing to take lightly. They meticulously plan and visualize their failure ensuring they allow themselves the time to do so. Add their tenacious ambition and the right team, and the plan is unstoppable. You can find Cameron’s TED Talk about failing to innovate on their website www.aerovelo.com within the next month. Follow us, along with Cameron, Todd and their team as we track AeroVelo's journey to their September race.