'Fast, efficient, zero carbon emission:' Students build electric skateboard
University of Moncton students build battery-operated longboard that reaches speeds of close to 40km/h
Four third-year electrical engineering students at the University of Moncton have built an electric skateboard that reaches speeds of close to 40 kilometres an hour, all while being environmentally friendly.
Jean-Luc Bastarache, Jean-Christophe Dupuis, Simon Bergeron and Alain Doucet estimate they've spent easily more than 100 hours over the last semester building the prototype as a project for their microprocessing class.
''We've all had a blast using it,'' said Bastarache. ''It's really fast, efficient, zero carbon emission.''
''Right before the snow, we had fun outside for two or three days,'' said Dupuis.
Bastarache, who had been into skateboarding since he was young, came up with the idea, and then things took off from there.
The students took a regular longboard and added an engine, a battery source, a few little chips and a lot of programming.
And of course, a remote, which controls the whole thing.
''Whenever you press on the trigger it accelerates,'' said Doucet. ''And then when you let go it brakes automatically.''
They even used a 3D printer to create some of the parts.
Riding at an average cruising speed of 15 kilometres an hour, the battery would probably last for about an hour's ride, until it would have to be recharged, which would take a few minutes.
The students admit it took a lot of work, but are proud of the result — especially that the electric board is going to be used by the university as a recruitment tool to show future students what people in the engineering program can do.
''It was definitely worth it,'' said Bastarache.