West Virginia University engineering students have re-engineered a sport-utility vehicle to make it more energy efficient, and their dean will take it for a spin Wednesday, April 25.

The Deans Ride-and-Drive will kick off at 11 a.m. in Room G-15 of the Engineering Sciences Building on the Evansdale Campus.

The students will display the vehicle and explain the results of their work to Gene Cilento, dean of the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.

The activity is part of Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility, a competition in which teams of engineering students from 17 universities across the country convert an SUV into a low-emissions vehicle with high gas mileage and then compete to see which team has achieved the best results.

Following a brief presentation, Cilento will take the re-engineered Chevrolet Equinox for a drive around the Evansdale Campus. The vehicle will be on display in Room G-15 before and after the event, and students will be available to discuss the work that they have done on the vehicle.

This competition challenges engineering students to decrease total emissions and energy consumption in a crossover vehicle, while maintaining or exceeding vehicle utility and performance,said Scott Wayne, WVU assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and advisor to the WVU Challenge X team.

The team will travel to the GM Proving Grounds in Michigan for the final round of competition May 31.

The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors are the main sponsors of the Challenge X competition.

More than 30 other industry sponsors provide participating teams with leading-edge math simulation software, automotive propulsion systems, fuels, emissions-control technologies, fuel cells and other tools and technologies to compete in the program.

WVU students on the Challenge X team include Daniel Adamson of Waynesburg, Pa.; Lindsay Boyd of Radford, Va.; Felipe Cuesta of Cali, Colombia; Allen Fish of Brunswick, Md.; Christopher Gee of Centreville, Va.; Adam Gibson of Terra Alta; Daniel Cook of Harrisville; Shanti Hamburg of Sutton; Colin Hultengren of Claksburg, Md.; John Kay of St. Albans; Josh Lantz of Aurora; Christian Montagliani of Morgantown; Ryan Oster of Slansville; Harshesh Patel of Martinsburg; Balaji Seward of Moundsville; Jeremy Sigley of Wana; and Mark Shroyer of Sipesville, Pa.

For more information, contact Lindsay Boyd, WVU Challenge X Outreach Coordinator, at 540-577-1819 or at lboyd2@mix.wvu.edu .