MOSCOW Three years of competition with the Clean Snowmobile
Challenge, many nights under the hood of the engine, finding
technical solutions and building teams has to have an effect
on a student one way or the other.
For Nathan Bradbury, this year's team leader for the University
of Idaho's Clean Snowmobile Team and member for two years
prior, it's made all the difference. He's developed from an
automotive technician to a researcher in transportation engineering,
who will go on next fall into a master's program in mechanical
engineering.
Bradbury graduated from Lakeland High School in Rathdrum
in 1995, came to UI with an associate degree in automotive
technology, and had worked in the automotive field for a while.
He got involved with the Clean Snowmobile Team in fall of
2001, and has been instrumental in the last two championships,
says his adviser Karen DenBraven.
"This year he is the team leader, guiding the team in
the design of a clean and quiet two-stroke engine. He had
an internship with the National Institute for Advanced Transportation
Technology (NIATT), helping a graduate student with a hybrid
power-plant to be used in snowmobiling. Last summer he received
a competitive grant to research technologies to improve the
fuel efficiency and decrease emissions from two-stroke engines
used in snowmobiles."
Also last summer, he and another graduate student developed
and tested a plan to reduce the exhaust emissions from touring
snowmobiles used by Rendezvous Sports for Yellowstone National
Park tours. He just received word that he has an internship
this summer with Bombardier, maker of the Ski-Doo.
Bradbury graduates with a bachelor's degree in mechanical
engineering and a much larger tool kit for competing. In life.