Students in West Virginia Universitys College of Engineering and Mineral Resources placed ninth among teams from 17 universities competing in Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility, North America’s premier college-level automotive engineering contest.
The competition was held in the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Mich. last week. It involved student teams from across the nation competing to re-engineer a Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle to increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact, while maintaining vehicle performance.
It is very exciting to be involved with a student competition to develop environmentally-friendly, fuel-efficient vehicles that consumers will want to buy,said Scott Wayne, the teams advisor and an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at WVU .Our students learn so much from this projectcertainly about automotive engineering, but also about project management and teamwork. It is a huge undertaking, but definitely worth the effort.
The teams are using a variety of alternative fuels including biodiesel, ethanol, reformulated gasoline and hydrogen. WVU s vehicle uses biodiesel fuel. The WVU team is also using ultracapacitors to source high levels of power for short periods of time and to recapture energy from braking. Ultracapacitors are more robust than batteries and can source more energy in operations.
In 2004, the first year of the program, activities focused on vehicle simulation and modeling and subsystem development and testing. In years two and three, students have been integrating advanced powertrains and subsystems into the vehicle. In the fourth and final year of the competition, students will focus on customer acceptability and over-the-road reliability and durability.
In addition to WVU , teams participating in Challenge X are Michigan Technological University, Mississippi State University, The Ohio State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, San Diego State University, Texas Tech University, University of Akron, University of California, Davis, University of Michigan, University of Tennessee, University of Texas at Austin, University of Tulsa, University of Waterloo, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Virginia Tech.
The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors are primary sponsors for the Challenge X competition. Argonne National Laboratory, a Department of Energy research and development facility, is providing competition management, team evaluation and technical and logistical support. More than 30 industry sponsors provide participating teams with math simulation software, automotive propulsion systems, fuels, emissions-control technologies, fuel cells and other tools and technologies.