Reinventing the Wheel

Some say there’s no reinventing the wheel, but MIT researchers have taken it far beyond what the Sumerians likely envisioned.

MIT’s SENSEable City Laboratory’s latest innovation, called the Copenhagen Wheel, is notable for taking a 6,000-year-old invention and “putting an image out there that is 15 years in the future, then making that future vision,” according to Project Direct Christine L. Outram, an MIT researcher. Intended to replace a bike wheel, it holds an environmentally friendly motor powered by the energy stored from the rider’s pedaling and braking. Its instruments also measure temperature, traffic, noise and pollution—data that can be transmitted in real time to an online database for cyclers.

The Copenhagen Wheel derived its name from a partnership between SENSEable and the Danish city of Copenhagen in 2008, in a challenge to raise the city’s biking population to 50 percent. MIT Professor Carlo F. Ratti led a student workshop to brainstorm solutions—although the trickiest part was “going from one idea to the real implementation,” Ratti said.

Outram said she hopes that the wheel will be used for diverse purposes. Though the wheel will not be available until 2011, some city mayors have already ordered the wheels to replace taxis or measure pollution, according to Outram.

“It was funny, seeing the mayor of Toronto ride [the wheel],”  Outram said. “I love the look on people’s faces when they ride this and it works. It’s like riding on air. You’re Lance Armstrong suddenly, and people get this goofy grin on their faces.”

Enrique M. Marquez, a student at the Graduate School of Education, said he thought the innovation could extend beyond cycling to problems on the mind of many Harvard students. “This could lead to other ways to produce energy,” he said. “And it would be cool if the bike’s energy could charge your iPhone while you ride it.”