By David Staudacher
Ravindra Kempaiah was an avid marathon runner when he lived in Maryland, but a knee injury led him to research new exercise and transportation options. That’s when he took an interest in electric bikes and their batteries.
“I got into biking more because I couldn’t run,” said Kempaiah, who just graduated from UIC with his PhD in mechanical and industrial engineering. “When I saw the electric bike technology, it just blew my mind. I could go 100 miles for cents of electricity.”
That led him on a path to UIC and ultimately to launch a start-up company called Zen Electric Bikes in Canada, where he is now serving as a postdoctoral researcher at Dalhousie University under professor Jeff Dahn, the Tesla Canada Research Chair.
After discovering electric bikes, Kempaiah’s fascination intensified to the point where he wanted to prove the efficiency and capability of these bikes and their batteries on a grand scale. In 2016, he rode an electric bike from Madison, Wisconsin, to San Diego, California, to set a Guinness World Record for the longest journey on a motorized bicycle.
“At the end of the journey, it was 5,100 miles. I calculated how much electricity it took to travel that distance across the U.S., and it was less than $6,” Kempaiah said. “There are not a lot of vehicles on the planet that can travel 5,100 miles for less than $6. I thought, ‘This is the future electric mobility.’”
After setting the world record, he decided to pursue battery research...
Read Full Story: https://today.uic.edu/engineering-graduate-launches-electric-bike-company
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.
