A team of five students from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette College of Engineering earned Grand Champion honors at the 10th annual National Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge in Sarasota, Florida.
The competition, hosted by Sun Hydraulics, challenges teams from across the United States to design and build a human-powered vehicle using fluid power systems. A fluid power vehicle uses pressurized fluid — such as hydraulic oil or compressed air — to store and transmit energy, rather than relying solely on a traditional combustion engine or electric battery.
This marks the second recent first-place finish for College of Engineering students. A University team also claimed the same competition title in 2023.
“Earning Grand Champion honors for the second time in three years, against outstanding institutions such from across the United States, is a testament to the talent, dedication and perseverance of our students and faculty mentors,” said Dr. Ahmed Khattab, dean of the College of Engineering.
Mechanical engineering students Andrew Judice, Jude Meaux, Brendan Oalmann, Logan Power and Kaiden Romein spent the academic year building their vehicle. The students traveled to Florida in April to participate in races and demonstrations judged by fluid power industry professionals.
Romein said the team made an ambitious decision, with encouragement from their faculty mentors, to build their vehicle completely from scratch. That gamble and late nights in the shop paid off.
“We entered the project with no prior experience in fluid power, which meant we had to build our knowledge from the ground up through self-directed learning, research and hands-on application,” said Romein. “This project ultimately exposed us to the full engineering project lifecycle.”
For Judice, the overall experience gave him a newfound confidence in his technical ability and future career.
“The recognition from this competition has reinforced how well prepared we were,” said Judice. “It was affirming to see how our designs held up against other big schools and showed us that we are genuine engineers.”
Faculty advisors John Carroll and Yasmeen Qudsi guided the team throughout the competition process. Caroll said the students who worked on this project received invaluable project management and engineering experience.
“They learned what it means to manage a project with real deadlines, so they really had to trust the engineering decisions they were making along the way,” said Caroll. “It was a great moment hearing our team announced as grand champions, especially knowing how much hard work they put into everything leading up to and during the competition.”
Photo: College of Engineering students received the top award in the 2026 National Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge. Photo credit: Submitted photo