Bianca Champenois SM ’22 discovered to experience a motorbike when she was 5 years outdated. She will nonetheless hear her sister yelling “equal elbows!” as she pushed her off into the road. Though she began younger, her love of bikes actually materialized when she was in faculty.
Champenois studied mechanical engineering (MechE) on the College of California at Berkeley, however with a first-year schedule comprising largely stipulations, she discovered herself wanting extra hands-on alternatives. She stumbled upon BicyCal, the college’s bike cooperative.
“I cherished the membership as a result of it was an area the place studying was inspired, errors have been forgiven, and vibes have been glorious,” explains Champenois. “I cherished how each single bike that got here into the store was barely completely different, which meant that no two issues have been the identical.”
By the co-op’s hands-on studying expertise, the few lengthy rides she took throughout a few of California’s bridges just like the Golden Gate, and the vigorous night “Bike Events” drafting behind associates, Champenois’s love for biking continued to develop. When she arrived at MIT for her grasp’s research, she joined the biking crew.
Champenois, who can also be enthusiastic about local weather motion, loved the sense of group the biking crew provided, however was searching for one thing that additionally allowed her to unravel issues and work on bikes once more.
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After discovering there wasn’t a comparable cooperative bike program on the Institute, Champenois was decided to begin one herself. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than she secured membership funding from The Coop’s Public Service Grant with the help of her peer, Haley Higginbotham ’21, who was additionally passionate concerning the trigger. By the tip of the yr, the crew had gained two extra volunteers, civil and environmental engineering graduate scholar Matthew Goss and supplies science and engineering grad scholar Gavin Winter, and the MIT Bike Lab was born.
“The concept is to empower individuals to discover ways to repair their very own bike in order that they’re motivated to make use of biking as a dependable transportation methodology,” says Champenois. The volunteer mechanic has a vested curiosity in selling sustainability and bettering city infrastructure.
Champenois is a graduate scholar within the joint Mechanical Engineering and Computational Science/Engineering program, and her analysis includes making use of information science and machine studying to fluid dynamics, with a particular concentrate on ocean and local weather modeling. The NSF Graduate Analysis Fellow is now constructing upon prior analysis centered on ocean acidification as a part of her PhD thesis, whereas she can also be concerned in different initiatives inside Professor Themis Sapsis’s Stochastic Evaluation and Nonlinear Dynamics (SAND) Lab.
“I recognize that my analysis strikes a steadiness between extra utilized environmental initiatives and extra theoretical statistics and computational science,” she explains whereas referencing a current analysis contribution to a challenge centered on bettering world local weather simulations.
Champenois’s tutorial analysis focus could also be particular, however she stresses that the Bike Lab isn’t focused to any explicit curiosity and welcomes all who’re desperate to study.
“In the event you’re focused on stable mechanics, you possibly can take into consideration bike frames. In the event you’re focused on materials science, you possibly can take into consideration brake pads. In the event you’re focused on fluids, you possibly can take into consideration hydraulic brakes,” she says. “I feel there’s one thing for everybody, and there is all the time one thing to study.”
Within the final year-and-a-half, the Bike Lab is estimated to have serviced over 150 bikes, they usually’re solely getting began. Champenois is bold concerning the Bike Lab’s future.
“I hope to show lessons, perhaps all through the semester or as a standalone IAP [Independent Activities Period] course. I’m additionally actually within the thought of managing a merchandising machine for components,” states Champenois.
Within the winter, the Bike Lab shops its instruments in N52-318, however the membership lacks the house wanted to increase. “With out our personal house, it’s troublesome for us to retailer components, which signifies that individuals are required to carry their very own components if their restore requires a substitute,” explains Champenois.
Whereas bodily house isn’t required to construct a way of group, Champenois envisions the Bike Lab exuding the identical type of camaraderie because the Banana Lounge, one other of 1 MIT’s student-run areas, someday.
“I like to consider the Bike Lab as greater than only a bike store. It is also a spot for group,” she says.
Champenois hopes to finish her diploma within the subsequent yr or two and wish to change into a professor sometime. She is happy by a profession in academia, however she says she may additionally see herself engaged on a local weather or climate analysis crew or becoming a member of an ocean expertise startup.
Many have heard the expression that being a scholar at MIT is like “consuming from a firehose,” however that is likely one of the issues Champenois will miss most when she leaves.
“I’ve had the chance to find so many new hobbies and been in a position to study a lot via sponsored actions,” she recollects. “Most significantly, I am going to miss the good individuals I’ve met. Everybody at MIT is so curious and hardworking in a manner that’s really energizing.”
