School buses are an integral part of the U.S. transportation sector. There are about 500,000 school buses in the United States that transport more than 24 million children on approximately 10 billion student trips each year. Nationwide, school buses consume an estimated 1.1 billion gallons of diesel fuel every year, and produce thousands of tons of air pollutants.

Like the rest of the transportation sector, school bus fleets are facing the challenges of increasing fuel costs and more stringent emission limits. They also face the challenge of the adverse health impact diesel exhaust and overall poor air quality is having on our nation’s children. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), recent studies suggest that children’s school bus commutes potentially expose them to much higher concentrations of pollutants than what is measured in the community’s outdoor air. School buses might be one of the safest ways to transport children, but certainly not the cleanest.

There are several ways to address these challenges, including more efficient engines and use of non-petroleum based fuels. Illinois Institute of Technology and the Plug-in Hybrid Electric School Bus (HESB) Project which is led by Raleigh, N.C.-based non-profit corporation Advanced Energy (AE), are addressing these issues through the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle technology. The HESB project is currently in the pre-production operation phase (2006-2009); and will soon move into the subsequent phases of fleet testing (2008-2012) and full-market deployment (2013). IIT is helping with the research and data analysis in the current phase to help better understand the full impact of plug-in hybrid electric technology. This project at IIT has been sponsored by Advanced Energy which is gratefully acknowledged.

For more information on the Plug-in Hybrid Electric School Bus Project visit http://www.hybridschoolbus.org/.

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, raised in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, and with schooling in New York and Chicago, Sadia Sadiq sees the world as one, with no borders, only people and children. With the keen desire to help make this world a cleaner, better place, she has focused her master’s thesis work on real-time performance analysis of plug-in hybrid electric school buses. She completed her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT as a Leadership Academy scholar and on-campus resident advisor. She returned to IIT to finish her master’s degree under the guidance of Dr. Ali Emadi. Fascinated with the unlimited possibilities and powerful impact creative, passionate, and smart engineering and teamwork can have, she plans to help revolutionize the global energy industry of the future.