A Sophomore Seminar
AA116Q: Electric Automobiles and Aircraft
September 2016 – December 2016
TuTh 3:00 to 4:15, Room 260-003
Professor Per Enge
Description: Transportation accounts for nearly one third of American energy use and
greenhouse gas emissions and three-quarters of American oil consumption, and thus
has crucial impacts on climate change, air pollution, resource depletion, and national
security. Students wishing to address these issues will need to reconsider how we
move, finding sustainable transportation solutions. This course will provide an
introduction to the issue, covering the past and present of transportation and its
impacts, examining alternative fuel proposals, and digging deeper into the most
promising option: battery electric vehicles. Topics will include the energy requirements
of air and ground transportation, the design of electric motors, power control systems,
drive trains, and batteries, and technologies for generating renewable energy. The
students will also form groups that design and build a small electric car (one foot in
length with a hand wound electric motor and a Lithium Polymer battery).
Contact Information:
• Per Enge (Professor) - per.enge@stanford.edu
Grading:
• Presentation (40%) – 15 minutes on an EV topic that you care about
1. Graded on depth and passion
2. Do not simply grab the top two pages from Google or Wikipedia
3. Potential topics: Connected car (GPS, SDARS, V2V, V2G, etc.); well-towheels efficiencies; resources (oil, copper, lithium, nickel, rare-earthmetals); recyclability; lightweight/efficient materials; charging
infrastructure; marine transportation; fleet management, etc.
• Group Project (40%): build a miniature electric car. One person for each of:
motor construction; chassis; commutation; gear train; and wheels & axles.
• Class attendance and participation (20%)
• No final exam, no quizzes
No required reading, but these books are highly recommended:
• James Larminie and John Lowry, “Electric Vehicle Technology Explained,” Wiley,
2003. The basis for our lectures on automobile dynamics.
• Henk Tennekes, “The Simple Science of Flight,” MIT Press, 2009. The basis for
our lectures on aircraft dynamics.
• Gal Luft and Anne Korin, "Turning Oil into Salt", BookSurge, 2009. The first five
chapters are especially good.
Syllabus (subject to significant change)
#
Date
Instructor
Content
1
Sept 27
Per Enge
Motors, visit from a student from last year to
counsel on the electric car project (Theo
Diamandis)
November 1, 2016
1
2
Sept 29
3
4
5
6
Oct 4
Oct 6
Oct 11
Oct 13
7
Oct 18
8
Oct 20
9
Oct. 25
10
Oct 27
11
12
Nov 1
Nov 3 Per
at PNT
Symposium
12A Nov 4
Optional
lecture
13
Nov 8
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Nov 10
Nov 15
Nov 17
Nov 22 &
24
Nov 29
Dec 1
Dec 6, Per
traveling
Dec 8, Per
traveling
during the
day
Guest: Nick Enge, History of Electric Vehicles (rolling, floating &
Lecturer from the flying)
Design Division
Per Enge
Motors (cont’d)
Per Enge
Power for rolling vehicles
Per Enge
Power for level flight & ships
Ethan Brown &
Unpiloted air vehicles (UAVs)
Guest: Adrien
Perkins
Grayson Melby & Estimating the range of an electric car
Per Enge
Samantha
History of human-powered and solar-powered
Beaulieu &
aircraft
Per Enge
Andrea Ramirez
Air transport over the next three decades
& Guest: Prof
Juan Alonso from
Stanford Univ.
Jonathan Walck & Autonomy
Guest: Prof.
Mykel
Kochenderfer
Per Enge
Estimating the acceleration of an electric car
Dr. Stephen
Visit to VAIL to see X1 and P1. Policy for
Zoepf, Exec.
electric cars. (confirmed)
Director of CARS
Prof. (Emeritus)
4pm at VAIL: Innovation for Internal
John Heywood,
Combustion Engines (ICE)
MIT
Kevin & Guest:
Tesla !
Joss Geiduschek
from Tesla
Joe & Per Enge
GPS & Turn-by-turn
Anchit, Jaisl, Hridu
Prof. Ilan Kroo,
from Stanford
Univ.
No class, Thanksgiving break
Kristina, Michael
Per Enge
Guest: Nick Enge, Battery technology
Lecturer from the
Design Division
Race night for student-built electric cars, Durand 450 from 7pm to
8:30pm
2
November 1, 2016
3