The Copenhagen Goodness – Awesome Hybrid Bike Wheel Wins U.S. Dyson Award
The Copenhagen Wheel, developed by a MIT-team led by Christine Outram, joins nine other regional-designs winners to compete for the grand-prize winner ($15,000 for themselves or their team, and another $15,000 for their school department). Results will be announced on Oct. 15th.
An ingenious wheel that could turn any bike into an electric hybrid has won the U.S. round of the James Dyson Award, an event that’s become the world’s premier student-design competition. Tonight, the winner will be formally announced, at a Designer Pages event discussing the bright, bold future of design.
What they came up with is a hybrid wheel, which generates electricity during braking (similar to the regenerative braking you find in many car hybrids). It then offers that electricity as a power boost up hills or over long distances. That power is controlled by an iPhone interface. (Shades of Apple’s Smart Bike!) Why’s all this groundbreaking? The hope is that hybrid power, by making previously difficult bike commutes easy, could make bikes a viable option for countless more commuters.
