Rockford student team wins national challenge with fluid-powered bicycle design

DEKALB, Ill. (WTVO) — A team of engineering students from Rock Valley College and Northern Illinois University (NIU) took home top awards in a national competition for developing a fluid-powered hydraulic bicycle.

The National Fluid Power Association’s Fluid Powered Vehicle Challenge asks students to design and build fluid-powered vehicles.

This year, a 12-person team led by Mohamed Alani, from Rockford, designed a hydraulic bike that took the top honors at the 2024 competition, held in Ames, Iowa.

The bike uses fluid pumped by pedaling to drive a motor.

“We were working every day and from Spring Break till the day that we went to the competition,” Alani said. “We were testing, doing minor adjustments, a little tuning, until we were able to achieve that. It was a lot of stress, but it paid off in the end because we ended up getting the most awards in the competition.”

In addition to winning the Final Presentation Award, the team also took home three first-place finishes in the Sprint, Efficiency, and Endurance races.

The students’ design was showcased at NIU’s Student Design Demonstration Day on Friday, held at the NIU Convocation Center, at 1525 W Lincoln Hwy.

NIU’s Dean of College Engineering, David Grewell, said the event celebrates the students’ success.

“I am so proud of what these students are doing,” Grewell said. “We can pat ourselves on the back as instructors, but it’s really the students. They’ve put it on themselves to learn, go out and challenge themselves. It’s just I am so proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish.”

Alani said the experience in the competition has helped each member of the team decide on their next career steps.

“One of the guys that does our controls, he has a job with a company that kind of focuses on controls [systems]. So it helped us to choose the right direction, or the right path, in our career,” he said.

Alani said he and three teammates will remain in Rockford after graduating as they begin careers at Woodward.

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