SIXTEEN COLLEGES NATIONWIDE GEAR UP FOR ECOCAR 3 COMPETITION

 

Students from 16 colleges around the nation are gearing up for year one of the four-year EcoCAR 3, Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC). The competition, which began in 2008 as a program sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM) and managed by the Argonne National Laboratory, aims to encourage the best and brightest to come up with novel automotive solutions to problems such as gas consumption and aerodynamics.

 

Each group is given a period of four years to put forth their best efforts – this one concludes in the summer of 2018 – with annual ceremonies marking the passing of each. This fall, each group will be presented with a 2015 Chevy Camaro. They are tasked with reducing the environmental impact of this iconic vehicle, without compromising the power and beauty that made it so famous.

 

”Our competition series is really about training the engineers of tomorrow,” says Patrick Davis, director of vehicle technologies at the DOE. Women engineers in training are featured prominently in some of the teams. The leadership of the team out of Wayne State University for example, is 57% female, with the overall team make up consisting of 43% female students.

 

The impact of the EcoCAR 3 challenge is felt through several facets of automotive engineering. Since its inception in 2008, participating schools have added approximately a collective 58 new courses related to the automotive and engineering side of their curriculums. Graduates of these programs earn approximately $15,000 more on average than their peers upon entering the workforce.

 

In addition to GM and the DOE, EcoCAR 3 has a variety of sponsors such as Bosch, Delphi, and Siemens. These companies provide parts and logistics for the teams, in addition to financial contributions and team mentoring. It is these same companies that will be on the lookout for talented engineering students in the years ahead, and the experience provided by EcoCAR 3 is an invaluable asset to the team members soon to be introduced into the workforce. Over 150 EcoCAR 3 team members have landed jobs in the Michigan automotive industry.

 

The focus of the competition is not only the performance and environmental impact of the vehicle; cost must be factored into the final design as well. With the rising cost of fossil fuel, many are seeking alternatives such as hybrid, or fully electric cars. The prohibitive cost is one of the obstacles to encouraging the average consumer to make the switch. “One of the big issues with electric and hybrid electric vehicles is the cost,” says John Haraf, director of electrification controls integration at GM. “The students have to use cost as part of the equation in defining what the vehicle is going to look like.”

 

The automotive industry is acutely aware of the increasing difficultly of marketing the same gas hungry vehicles to increasingly conscious consumers. “If we want to still produce V8 Camaros, we’re going to have to look at alternative methods of propulsion.” says Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer.

 

During this iteration of the contest, which begins in fall 2015, participants expect breakthroughs to follow. With advances in computer science and design increasing at an exponential rate, the teams expect to have many more tools at their disposal in the years to come. However, just being a part of the completion is an accomplishment in itself.

 

“The end result is not really to win for us, it’s the experience gained in the competition.” says Farshad Fotouhi, dean of engineering at Wayne State.

 

EcoCAR 3 includes both new teams and veterans to the AVTC. Participating schools are:

• Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)

• California State University – Los Angeles (Los Angeles)

• Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO)

• Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, FL)

• Georgia Tech (Atlanta)

• McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)

• Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS)

• The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)

• Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA)

• University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)

• University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)

• University of Washington (Seattle, WA)

• University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)

• Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)

• Wayne State University (Detroit)

• West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV)