Mechanical Engineering Students Achieve Second Place in 2026 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge

A team of five Loyola Marymount Universitymechanical engineering students were recently awarded second place in the 2026 Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge in Rockford, Illinois, hosted by global engineering company IMI and sponsored by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA). The competition is part of NFPA's workforce development initiatives that promote innovation and challenge students to design and build a human-powered vehicle using fluid power systems (hydraulics and pneumatics).

Traeger Harrison, Charlie Hill (team lead), Sarah Leka, Daniel Pedler, and Noah Striker made up the LMU student engineering team with faculty advisor Emin Issakhanian, associate professor of mechanical engineering at LMU, who mentored the seniors on their capstone project.

LMU's team competed against ten universities, including Purdue and Texas A&M, in three races (endurance, sprint, and efficiency) judged by industry professionals. In addition to the races, teams demonstrated the vehicle's regenerative braking capabilities and made presentations on vehicle construction, testing, and lessons learned. Each team also met individually with the industry judges to assess their vehicle design.

"This competition asks students to build bicycles that use hydraulics to transfer power from the rider to the vehicle," said Issakhanian. "This was a challenging task requiring a unique engineering approach. The LMU Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering team placed in all three events at the competition. They also showed great sportsmanship cheering other teams and providing parts and assistance to UC Irvine when their vehicle was in need of repair. I am very proud of these students and their accomplishments."

The team's vehicle utilized a modified cargo frame and a closed-loop hydraulic circuit featuring four operating modes. The drivetrain integrated a 30:1 reduction (30 rotations produced by the gearbox for every 1 pedal rotation) for optimal pump speed and a two-stage jackshaft for torque multiplication. In competition, the vehicle earned second place in efficiency (19 percent), third place in the sprint (21.7 seconds), and second place in endurance (18.5 laps). Despite the failure of the regenerative braking demonstration due to frictional slippage, the vehicle secured a second-place overall finish. The design confirmed the reliability of the simplified drivetrain architecture and identified necessary improvements for future energy recovery systems.

The main goal of this design challenge was to translate human power into hydraulic power and then output it as mechanical power. "So, a bicycle is human powered and uses a chain connected to the pedals, applying mechanical power to spin the back wheel and thus move forward. With the fluid power vehicle challenge, there's the addition of a hydraulic circuit to the design. There is a person peddling, which is still connected to a chain, but it turns a hydraulic pump that pushes fluid throughout the hydraulic circuit which in turn powers the back wheel to propel the vehicle forward," Hill explained.

Featuring a standout design choice, LMU was the only team to use a micro-piston pump versus the more basic gear pump used by the other teams. "This type of pump performs well at high pressures, which was important because our system could reach up to 3000 psi," said team member Traeger Harrison, who led the hydraulics portion of the design. "Although the pump has a smaller displacement value and requires much higher operating speeds (1500 - 3000 rpm) than gear pumps, our team designed a solution to meet these requirements. By incorporating a 30:1 gear ratio into the bike drivetrain, an average pedaling speed of 60 - 70 rpm was converted into approximately 1800 - 2100 rpm at the pump - placing it directly within its optimal efficiency range. This design allowed us to take full advantage of the micro-piston pump's efficiency and high-performance capabilities."

When dividing up the team roles, the students chose to work on engineering elements where they had less experience. "In industry, it is often hard to prioritize learning something new versus tackling something you're most proficient at. I've heard the best engineers know how to perform skills outside of their specific area of expertise," said Hill.

The team would like to acknowledge support partners instrumental in their success including JT Van Veen, general manager at IMI Rockford, Joe Jackan, director of engineering at Jarp Industries, and Jason Norton, operations manager at Alternative Hose, as well as LMU's Tim Breman (Machine Shop) and Xiaodong Sun (Engineering Design Center).