ALUMNI PROFILE
Wouk Advocates Hybrid Electric Vehicles
By Lisa Kitayama

Victor Wouk '39

Who would have thought that a bus ride down Riverside Drive on the M5 might represent one of the best answers to the environmental and energy dilemmas of the traditional automobile?

Almost 100 years after its inception, the hybrid electric vehicle, which is powered by both an internal combustion engine and an electric battery generator, can be found (though only rarely) on New York City bus routes. His widely viewed by proponents as the prototype for future automobiles.

Victor Wouk '39, a consultant and lecturer on this concept, has spent the past 30 years advocating the benefits of this hybrid vehicle. The HEV is attractive because it releases fewer pollutants and requires less fuel than an automobile with a traditional internal combustion engine. It also addresses the short-range limitations of an electric vehicle by enabling longer road trips. But the use of HEV remains low in the public and private sphere, even in large cities such as New York, which currently operates a total of five HEV buses.

Though his traveling itinerary is comprehensive, Wouk returned to Morningside Heights last April at the request of Professor Vijay Modi to present a lecture at SEAS that was sponsored by the mechanical engineering department and the ASME student chapter. Wouk came away from his lecture impressed by the intelligence of the students' questions, and stressed the importance of further studies of this topic by students.

According to Modi, the department hopes to continue to offer both graduate and undergraduate level courses on this topic due to high student interest. Modi noted that interest in alternative forms of energy and the HEV encompasses disciplines ranging beyond engineering, including international affairs and environmental studies.