Buckeye Bullet Engineer Embarks on a New Road after Graduation

By Katelyn Vitek

Ed Hillstrom got into mechanical engineering to find solutions. 

Buckeye Bullet team leader Dave Cook, mechanical engineering, Ed Hillstrom, center with white ball cap, and Rob Ewing, mechanical engineering, check on the driver, Roger Schroer, as they race the Buckeye Bullet 2 at the Utah Salt Flats.

“My dad was a mechanical engineer. He always had the answers to ‘How does this work? How does a plane work? How does a car work?’ And he always knew, because he was a mechanical engineer,” says Hillstrom, who will receive his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Ohio State’s commencement Sunday.

That desire for answers led Hillstrom to study alternative ways to power vehicles. He had previously worked at Saturn (GM) and knew from that experience exactly what he was looking for in a graduate school.

“I wanted to stay in automotive. UC Berkeley and Michigan are huge grad programs, but they didn’t have anything nearly as focused on automotive with as many unique projects (as Ohio State),” says Hillstrom.

During his tour of Ohio State, Hillstrom got a sneak preview of the Smokin’ Buckeye, which was the battery powered Indy-style race car built and raced by the Center for Automotive Research. The Buckeye Bullet was just beginning, and Hillstrom knew he had to get in on the action.

“They (CAR) were just starting the Bullet; they just had the idea. They hadn’t done any work on it yet, but they were getting ready to start, and it just sounded like a cool place to be,” says Hillstrom.

After completing the Buckeye Bullet and his master’s degree in 2003, Hillstrom went to work for Chrysler. Three years later, Hillstrom felt a need to come back to Ohio State and get his doctoral degree. At the time, the Buckeye Bullet 2 program was just beginning, so he was eager to get involved again. However, his work on the project would be a bit different this time.

The original Buckeye Bullet was a battery car, while the Buckeye Bullet 2 used fuel cells. After working at Chrysler, Hillstrom wanted a change from his work studying chassis and suspension in vehicle dynamics.

So instead of focusing on the vehicle dynamics of the Bullet 2, Hillstrom shifted gears and turned his attention to fuel cells.

“I liked working in vehicle dynamics, but it was clear that it was just a technology that existed and you could learn it, but it wasn’t changing on a daily basis. So when I came back to school, I wanted to work on the fuel cells, because that was a very new technology, and it’s still changing all the time,” says Hillstrom.

Hillstrom studied the pressure problem of fuel cells.

“To maximize power in a fuel cell you want to run it under the highest pressure you can. The problem is we were doing that, but we had these problems where every time we’d shift the transmission, we’d get a pressure spike. Sometimes we’d get that on startup, and that damaged the fuel cells. It’s like a seal; you put too much pressure on anything, and it can blow open,” says Hillstrom.
Hillstrom used this problem as the starting point for his dissertation, which culminated with his creation of a new fuel cell model.

“We were system integrators for the Ballard fuel cells, so we didn’t know all the details of the cells themselves. We just had the system details. That’s what my model is focused at, for people who don’t have all the details about the fuel cells but need to make the system work,” says Hillstrom.

While his master’s and doctoral degrees were time consuming by themselves, Hillstrom was able to manage both while simultaneously competing with the Buckeye Bullet teams. Hillstrom completed his work in chunks and found that the graduate course load, while intense, was more flexible and easier to work with than his undergraduate classes. He even had some spare time to work on his Jeep, which he built from scratch.

Hillstrom’s hard work has earned him a job at a new company that combines Ballard, Ford and Daimler AG into a joint venture called AFCC Automotive Fuel Cell Corp. to develop automotive fuel cells.
Like his father, Hillstrom is looking for answers in his own field. He wants to solve the problems of battery cars and create new fuel cell powered vehicles for the future.

“I think battery vehicles will have a place, but they’re not going to fulfill everybody’s need. That’s why I think fuel cells hold a way to replace the vehicles that we drive today,” says Hillstrom. “If I wanted to tow a boat, I can’t tow it with a battery car because that can’t handle the extra load for very long. But fuel cells can give you that energy in a zero emissions vehicle.”