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Library of Congress Will Host the Year Three Finals Awards

April 14, 2011 in EcoCAR News by ggguest | No comments

The EcoCAR Year Three Finals award ceremony will be held at the Library of Congress on Thursday, June 16, 2011! This event will feature an evening reception, dinner, and an awards ceremony for students, organizers, and sponsors. Students will also have the chance to take a tour of the Library Gallery. Make sure to dress your best because this event is semi-formal!

Library of Congress (Courtesy www.loc.gov)

The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. The Library currently holds more than 147 million items, including more than 33 million books and other print materials, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.4 million maps, 6 million pieces of sheet music and 64.5 million manuscripts. Its mission is to further the progress of knowledge and education, much like EcoCAR’s mission to apply the knowledge students are learning to real-world energy and transportation challenges!

We hope you are as excited as we are to have our finale awards ceremony in one of the most beautiful places in Washington, D.C.!

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In Case You Missed It… Video of the EcoCAR 2 Team Announcement

April 13, 2011 in EcoCAR News, Video Blogs by ggguest | No comments

If you weren’t able to attend SAE’s 2011 World Congress this week, EcoCAR 2 made quite a splash. Yesterday we announced that the GM-donated vehicle for EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future will be a Chevrolet Malibu, and today DOE named the sixteen teams selected to participate in the competition.

Check out the video recap below to see what happened!

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EcoCAR 2 Teams Announced!

April 13, 2011 in EcoCAR News by ggguest | 3 comments

EcoCAR made its second big announcement of the SAE 2011 World Congress today, when DOE’s David Sandalow named the sixteen teams selected to participate in EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future. The North American colleges and universities competing in EcoCAR 2 will be:

    • California State University, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)
    • Colorado State University  (Fort Collins, CO)
    • Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Daytona Beach, FL)
    • Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS)
    • North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC)
    • The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH)
    • Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA)
    • Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN)
    • Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, IN)
    • University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada)
    • University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Knoxville, TN)
    • University of Victoria (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
    • University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
    • University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada)
    • Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA)
    • Wayne State University (Detroit, MI)

      Please join us in congratulating these schools on being selected. Engineers on all sixteen teams will spend the next three years developing innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of a GM-donated Chevrolet Malibu without compromising performance, safety and consumer appeal. To learn more about North America’s Premier Collegiate Automotive Engineering Competition, go to www.ecocar2.org.

      We can’t wait to see what the teams come up with!

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      And the EcoCAR 2 Vehicle Will Be…

      April 12, 2011 in EcoCAR News by ggguest | No comments

      …the Chevrolet Malibu!

      Today, Karl Stracke, CEO of Opel/Vauxhall at General Motors and the general chairman of SAE 2011 World Congress, announced the vehicle choice during the conference keynote address. The 16 EcoCAR 2 teams will utilize the Chevrolet Malibu as the integration platform for their advanced vehicle design throughout the EcoCAR 2: Plugging in to the Future competition. For the next three years, student engineers at select schools will use hybrid electric powertrains, adaptive control systems and advanced battery technologies to reduce the vehicles’ environmental impact without compromising performance, safety and consumer acceptability.

      The vehicle EcoCAR 2 teams will get to reengineer: a Chevy Malibu

      Tomorrow, David Sandalow, Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs at DOE, will be announce the elite teams selected to participate in the EcoCAR 2 program, so be sure to check back for the full list of schools!

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      Guess the Location of the Year Three Awards Ceremony!

      April 8, 2011 in EcoCAR News by ggguest | No comments

      Throughout the last year, EcoCAR teams have been working to produce the most fuel-efficient and consumer-friendly vehicle to compete in more than a dozen dynamic events at this year’s finals.

      In less than 10 weeks, EcoCAR teams from across North America will attend the 2011 EcoCAR Competition Finals from June 6-16 in Milford, Michigan and Washington, D.C. Teams will have a chance to take home top honors in more than 40 awards and $100,000 in cash prize money.

      The Year Three finale and awards ceremony will be held at one of the most historic landmarks in the United States. Can you guess where? Here are a few hints:

      • Was founded in 1800
      • Had more than 1.7 million visitors in 2010
      • Holds more than 147 million items and captures more than 460 languages
      • Contains more than 838 miles of bookshelves

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      New National Clean Fleets Partnership at the DOE

      April 8, 2011 in Green Auto News, Video Blogs by ggguest | No comments

      President Obama recently announced the creation of the National Clean Fleets Partnership, a public-private initiative dedicated to helping large companies use greener vehicles. Five private sector leaders, AT&T, FedEx, PepsiCo, UPS, and Verizon, will team up with the Department of Energy to convert a significant portion of their service fleets to electric or alternative fuel-vehicles.

      These charter members own five of the top ten largest fleets in the country, operating more than 250,000 vehicles between them. Making their service vehicles cleaner will have a massive impact on America’s fuel consumption and environmental footprint, as well as saving the companies money in the long run.

      EcoCAR congratulates the Obama administration and the five charter members on this initiative, and we hope the technologies EcoCAR teams are developing today will be in some of the Clean Fleet vehicles of the future!

      Take a look at this video to learn more about the National Clean Fleets Partnership:

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      How Virginia Tech became the First Team to Finish Year 3 Safety Tech

      April 7, 2011 in Team Posts, Video Blogs by ggguest | No comments

      In Year Two, it took the HEVT team several days to get their VTREX vehicle through all aspects of the safety tech inspection. This year, however, the team used its experience to make the process as painless as possible. Prior to shipping the vehicle off to the Spring Workshop, HEVT ran multiple mock inspections that went through every requirement on the official inspection list. All this hard work paid off since the VTREX was the first of all sixteen teams to pass Safety Tech inspection at EPA, which allowed the car to get straight to emissions testing.

      Every EcoCAR vehicle was required to pass all parts of the safety tech inspection before it could be driven in any road tests or approved for dynamometer testing. Key points of the EPA inspection include checking to make sure critical fasteners are torqued to the proper specifications, checking to ensure that wires and coolant hoses are properly secured and safe from potential damage or movement and checking the high voltage systems to ensure everything is correctly labeled and properly installed.

      Check out the video below to see HEVT team member, Jesse Alley, walk through the key points of the safety tech inspection:

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      UWAFT’s Custom-built Subframe

      April 6, 2011 in Team Posts, Video Blogs by ggguest | No comments

      In order to make the wheels spin on UWAFT’s hydrogen fuel cell plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the EcoCAR students at the University of Waterloo have successfully integrated two electric motors into the vehicle’s drivetrain – one at the front wheels and one at the rear wheels.  To effectively use the electricity of the team’s GM-donated fuel cell and A123Systems-donated battery, UWAFT needed frequent successful bench tests of its Siemens AC induction electric rear motor.

      Since this motor was not originally intended to be incorporated into the stock GM sub-frame, UWAFT has designed a unique rear mounting system that retained the original suspension mounting points, while also housing the sizable motor.  Knowing that the electric motor would need to be detached from the vehicle on a regular basis for testing, UWAFT specially designed the rear sub frame to ensure that disassembly was as efficient as possible. The design was a success, effectively accommodating the electric motor while making it possible for two people to disassemble in 15 minutes. This small mechanical modification has led to an increase in productivity and overall efficiency when working on the motor.

      Watch the video below to see a bench test of UWAFT’s rear electric motor in action!

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      The RHIT Team Shows off its EcoCAR at Indiana University

      April 5, 2011 in Team Posts, Video Blogs by ggguest | No comments

      As part of Indiana University’s Sustainability “Themester,” the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology EcoCAR team brought their vehicle to Bloomington and put it on display. IU’s Themester is an initiative to engage the collective knowledge and creativity of the faculty and involve undergraduate students in the exploration of ideas that span all disciplines but relate back to one theme. The Fall 2010 theme at IU was Sustainability: Thriving on a Small Planet, so the EcoCAR competition was a fantastic tie-in.

      IU was so impressed with RHIT’s EcoCAR that they featured the vehicle in the Themester’s closing ceremonies! Watch the video below to learn more:

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      And the Winner of the Best Website Award is… the University of Victoria!

      March 31, 2011 in EcoCAR News by ggguest | 1 comment

      We have a breaking story on the Green Garage blog today as EcoCAR has announced the winner of the “Best Website” outreach award! UVic took home first place for the contest, which judged team websites based on content, creativity, and appeal. UVic will receive a $500 prize for winning, narrowly edging out second place finisher Ohio State and third place University of Waterloo.

      The UVic website features a simple, intuitive layout with up-to-date news and blog posts. The site is visually appealing, with plenty of photos of the team’s vehicle and student team members. Sponsor logos and links to social networking tools are also prominently displayed, completing the EcoCAR judges’ criteria for the award.

      Please join us in congratulating UVic and wishing them the best of luck during the last few months of the competition!

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