September 2009

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Virginia Tech Team In Front of Saturn VUE

Virginia Tech Team In Front of Saturn VUE

Virginia Tech kicked off year 2 of the three-year EcoCar: The NeXt Challenge competition with a first place win at Track One at F1 Racing Boston during the Fall Workshop in Boston, Mass.

Patrick Walsh, Virginia Tech’s Hybrid Electric Vehicle Team’s co-leader, who was the driver of the car was asked about his team’s victory.

“It’s a great way to start off this year’s competition. Go Hokies!,” said Patrick.

In addition to the F1 race, Virginia Tech team participated in technical and outreach training throughout the five day event provided by The MathWorks, one of the key sponsors of the competition in addition to Department of Energy and GM.

“The classroom sessions were productive and will prove to be very valuable as we work to integrate our designs in the GM vehicle this year,” said Lynn Gantt, co-leader of the HEVT team.

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After one year of intensive design work on computers and preparing lengthy technical reports (5 overall design reports and 1 battery design report), the North Carolina State EcoCAR team received its long-awaited Saturn VUE. To capture the excitement of the vehicle’s arrival at the NC State campus on September 18th, the team recorded the event in pictures and video. Enjoy!

Tractor Trailer Arrives on September 18

Tractor Trailer Arrives on September 18

Saturn VUE Leaving the Trailer

Saturn Before Unloading

NC State's Saturn VUE Hits the Road

NC State's Saturn VUE Hits the Road

NC State EcoCAR Team Poses With VUE

NC State EcoCAR Team Poses With VUE

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The WVU EcoCAR Team at F1 Boston

The WVU EcoCAR Team at F1 Boston

F1 Champ Andrew Wiedrich

F1 Champ Andrew Wiedrich

The West Virginia University EcoCAR Team kicked off the Year 2 Competition by chalking up their first victory as the F1 Race Champs! Andrew Wiedrich led his team to victory by placing first out of nine schools in the Track Two Challenge at the Formula One in Boston.

“I was extremely excited that I won. Starting in eighth place out of nine schools I had my work cut out for me, but somehow I was able to sneak through to the front of the race,” said Wiedrich.

He added, “After the race I was so pumped up on adrenaline that I was shaking!”
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mobl0VzHlqQ]
A ray of sunshine appeared on an otherwise rainy Friday afternoon in Starkville, Mississippi as a shiny white GM Saturn VUE was unloaded in front of a group of enthusiastic students.

Eagerly anticipating its arrival, several of us drove to the our green garage immediately upon hearing the VUE was in town. After seeing it safely unloaded, we took a test drive around Mississippi State University’s Industrial Park, listening to the smooth transition from the electric to gas-powered.

Our car is sure to be a big hit as the news reaches campus that the EcoCAR has finally made it. We can’t wait to get to work on this already phenomenal car and learn more about economically friendly energy sources!

See our pictures:

Also check out our team page.

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This morning, at the Museum of Science in Boston, representative from The General Motors Company, Department of Energy, The MathWorks and A123Systems addressed a crowd of students and journalists, officially kicking off year two of the EcoCAR competition.

Today’s presenters included Connie Bezanson from DOE, Paul Smith from The MathWorks, Rob Mosher from A123Systems and Kent Helfrich from General Motors.

Here are some photos from the event:

The Teams Gather After Press Conference

The Teams Gather After Press Conference


Kent Helfrich from General Motors

Kent Helfrich from General Motors

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Engineering is intense.  Turning a Saturn VUE into a next-generation vehicle takes skill, intelligence and commitment.  Okay, it’s also a lot of fun.  So, in the spirit of racing toward sustainability, the EcoCAR team members spent last evening racing around a track at F1 Boston.  Today, they were back in workshops poring over information on optimizing vehicles for fuel economy, performance and emissions, but, as you can see by the pictures below (thanks to Martin Velilla), last night it was all about EIL – Engineers-in-the-Loop, a figure-8 loop that is.

EcoCAR Team Members Line Up Before Start

EcoCAR Team Members Line Up Before Start

Neck and Neck Around the Track

Neck and Neck Around the Track

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GTETo say the Georgia Tech EcoCAR team is excited would be a severe understatement! As we are gearing up for the exciting second year of the competition, we are literally floating on clean air cloud nine. Even though only a few of our team members will be in attendance at the Fall Workshop in Boston, all of our team members will be eagerly awaiting the abundance of useful information we will undoubtedly receive.

We are anticipating the introduction of MATLAB into our design and learning how it will our solve technical computing problems even faster! After the Fall Workshop, the GT EcoCAR Team plans to use all of the newly acquired knowledge to our full advantage!

Stay tuned for all of the Real Time Buzz action: we will be tweeting @GTEcoCAR, blogging (http://www.ecocar.gatech.edu) and Facebooking (become a fan: GT EcoCAR Team) while we are in Boston!

GT EcoCAR Team

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080814_3RF1440-568pxAs Year 2 of EcoCAR heats up and teams turn their focus from virtual design to physical integration, teams will undoubtedly look toward software tools provided by The MathWorks as a Platinum sponsor.

The MathWorks will host 2 days of hands-on training at our Natick, MA campus during the upcoming EcoCAR Fall Workshop. EcoCAR teams can tailor their instruction to best suit their designs’ needs by selecting from 3 tracks of courses offered during the workshop.

So whether a novice or power user, teams will leave the workshop solidly grounded in MathWorks software tools, such as MATLAB, Simulink and a range of other tools for Model-Based Design and control strategy development that will be central to the team’s activities in the year ahead.
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A123Systems LogoHow do EcoCAR teams learn the ABC’s and 1-2-3’s of advanced battery systems? Energy storage experts from A123Systems Energy Solutions Group will host a training session for EcoCAR teams at their facilities in Hopkington, Massachusetts during the upcoming EcoCAR Fall Workshop in September.

A123Systems is a Platinum Sponsor of the EcoCAR Challenge, providing advance lithium battery modules to 14 of the 17 universities. In the first academic year of EcoCAR these 14 EcoCAR teams were challenged to design their own custom battery pack using the A123Systems modules and battery management system. In Year 2, kicking off this September, teams will receive the A123Systems battery modules they will use to build and integrate their battery pack into their competition vehicle. In preparation for this monumental task, A123Systems is hosting a session during the Fall workshop to give EcoCAR teams a first-hand look at the battery system’s components and an opportunity to tour the battery manufacturing facilities.
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GM Logo

GM Logo

If you’ve been following the EcoCAR competition, then you know that starting Wednesday this week EcoCAR competitors will convene in Boston for the Fall Workshop to officially kick-off the second year of competition. We’re excited to spend this time in the Boston area, and we hope that by the end of the week, as the Cheers saying goes, “everyone will know our name!”

This is a really exciting time for the competition, because it’s the point when things really begin to heat up. The teams have made it through the design and modeling stage and, now that they are working with actual vehicles, they’re ready to “put the pedal to the metal” and accelerate zero to 60 – or, should we say, zero to “green” – in no time flat.
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