Inside the Green Garage » Argonne National Lab

You Know You’re an Engineer When…Day 4 Video is Zaniest Yet

sbauman — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:55:40 +0000

On the eve of announcing the final winners (see post below) we captured the EcoCAR Challenge participants at their zaniest. Keep your eyes open for the answers to “You know you’re an engineer when…” and the “First thing I ever tore apart…” Also, don’t miss the gorgeous girls of EcoCAR, the “chick magnet” and shirtless man. Yes, this is a serious contest, but clearly this next generation of talented engineers likes to have fun inside their green garages!

Enjoy.

Going Green and Giving Back: Frank Falcone’s Story

ggguest — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:10:31 +0000

Frank Falcone In Action

After being laid off from my eight-year job as a lab technician, I decided it was time to return to school at San Diego State University and finish my Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Initially, I figured I would get through school, get a job somewhere in San Diego and get back to evening surfing sessions as soon as possible. Then my life changed.

During my fourth year, I caught word of a hybrid vehicle engineering project at SDSU that was just getting started called Challenge X. As a diehard gear-head and car enthusiast, I went to check it out and, almost immediately, I was hooked. As soon as I started working on SDSU’s high-performance hybrid vehicle, I knew I had found my niche. I was always interested in being part of solving the nation’s energy issues, and if I could do this while building fast cars, even better! SDSU, however, was new to these types of competitions and, as a result, we faced many tough challenges.

I graduated from SDSU during the first year of Challenge X with my Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, but I soon realized that if I wanted to make a career in this area, I had a lot more to learn! So, I signed up for graduate school and continued working on Challenge X for three and a half of the four years of Challenge X. Staying on as SDSU’s hybrid team lead not only allowed me to gain valuable automotive eco-engineering experience, but also gave me the opportunity to see what it really takes to turn innovative dreams into reality, in the form of a functional driving vehicle.

So, after graduation, when it was time to find a job, my thoughts turned to giving back to the program that helped me so much in school. In March 2008, I joined the team at Argonne National Laboratory as a Vehicle Systems Engineer for the advanced vehicle technology competitions, where I helped to organize the final year of Challenge X and now organize EcoCAR, the latest competition series. It is very rewarding knowing that my hard work planning these competitions is helping new generations tackle our transportation and energy-related challenges!

And, while my new wife and I have relocated from San Diego to Plainfield, Illinois, I am content knowing that, once again, I will watch the sun set from my surfboard, but this time from Lake Michigan

Contributed by Frank Falcone, Vehicle Systems Engineer, Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions at Argonne National Laboratory.

Clean Vehicle Innovators: 20 Years, 15,000 Students and Still Going

ggguest — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:57:08 +0000

Advanced Vehicle Technology Competiton

This year is the 20th year of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) program at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The research and development laboratory outside of Chicago has managed more than 45 student vehicle competitions for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) since the program began with the Methanol Marathon in 1989. To date, more than 15,000 students from 85 different colleges and universities have participated.
While some of the technical goals and execution have changed over the years, the AVTCs are bound by a common theme: to accelerate the development and demonstration of technologies of interest to DOE and the automotive industry, help prepare the market to accept advanced vehicle technologies and to seed the automotive industry with a new generation of engineering graduates with hands-on, real-world experience that will better prepare them for the energy and transportation-related challenges of the 21st century.

Right now, we’re in the midst of EcoCAR: The Next Challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and many other companies. The three-year competition series kicked off in May 2008 and is expected to conclude in June 2011. The EcoCAR teams are now part of a legacy that includes past series such as Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility; FutureTruck; FutureCar; HEV Challenge; Methanol Marathon; NGV Challenge; Ethanol Vehicle Challenge; and Propane Vehicle Challenge.

On behalf of ANL, we’d like to congratulate the 15,000 alumnae of the AVTC program. Together with hundreds of intrepid sponsors we’ve made a difference. Many former competitors are working in vehicle development today and countless others are pursuing careers as engineers because a competition sparked the innovator in them.
JOIN THE AVTC GROUP ON LINKEDIN TO CONNECT WITH FELLOW ALUMS.

Contributed by Kristen De La Rosa, Director/Acting Section Leader, Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions at the Center for Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory.