Urbike: zero-mission urban mobility

The Urbike developed by a group of four Liège students is one of the winners of the BiR&D Interdisciplinary Master of Science Thesis Program Award 2011.

The prize was presented to them on February 3, 2012, at the UCB in Brussels.

Belgian Industrial Research and Development (BiR&D) is an association which brings together the major Belgian industrial companies active in R&D (UCB, Umicore, GSK-Bio, Lhoist, Alcatel-Lucent, etc.). Its mission is to bolster interest in R&D in Belgium, and the Interdisciplinary Master of Science Thesis Program is one of its most important action projects.

It consists of providing support for the carrying out of interdisciplinary projects developed by students, and which require a platform of financial means and a large dose of R & D. The fulfilment of these projects is inscribed in the framework of student end of study projects, and is supported by the professors who supervise these projects.

Launched in 2009, this programme has already supported some fifteen projects suggested by Belgian universities and High Schools.

This year, a quartet of Liège students, of which three are at the ULg, was awarded for its Urbike project. Resembling the Vélib in Paris, the latter’s design is based on urban electric scooters, as well as their recharging posts, and a management model (computer science and economic) rooted in the hiring and sharing of these scooters. The project thus requires an ensemble of skills, technical and computing as well as management. And that is why the Urbike project, supported by ID Campus, has been developed in particular by students in the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the HEC-ULg.

Ferdi Erden (Masters in Computer Sciences), Angelo Anello (Masters in Electromechanics Civil Engineering), Nicolas-Gaspard Braham (Masters in Mangaement) and Maxime Pastourel (Bachelors in Industrial Design) have thus continued the work begun by their student colleagues one year ago.

These students were supervised at the ULg by Aude Niffle and Professor Fabrice Pirnay (HEC-ULg), and Professors Bernard Boigelot and Pierre Duysinx (Faculty of Applied Sciences).

The scooter and recharge post prototypes are developed at (and with the support of) Campus Automobile, on the edges of the Spa-Francorchamps race circuit.

More info? www.birdbelgium.com

Urbike video