EcoCAR 2 winner OSU wins year one of North American EcoCAR 3 competition

The US Department of Energy and General Motors announced The Ohio State University (OSU) as the overall winning team for Year One of the EcoCAR 3 competition, a four-year collegiate engineering program that gives students the chance to design, build, and demonstrate cutting-edge, eco-friendly automotive technologies in the all-new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro. Virginia Tech and the University of Waterloo took second and third place respectively.

The judges decided that OSU showed all-around excellence in Year One, demonstrating a highly mature software development process, and as a result received a trophy, $10,000 and repeat winner bragging rights. The team earned a total of 937 points out of 1,000 and also took first place in the Communications and Project Management categories. Judges were impressed by their efforts in identifying a target market for their vehicle and branding strategy, including the tagline: “Classic.Recharged.”

As part of the EcoCAR 3 Competition, each university team chose a different innovation that they will incorporate into their competition vehicle. OSU’s was DRIVE: Driver Recommendation for Increased Vehicle Efficiency—an infotainment system that allows the driver to input a destination, then calculates the most efficient route and velocity to that destination.

This year really lays the foundation vehicle development, which is critical step in the process for future success. We have already begun vehicle dynamic analysis for next year and are excited to share some of our innovative features we plan to integrate into our vehicle.

—M.J. Yatsko, OSU Engineering Manager

The competing 16 North American university teams gathered in Seattle for several days of judged competition. Throughout the events, teams put their designs to the test, giving presentations to industry and government professionals based on their mechanical, electrical, control strategies, project initiation approval, outreach, project management, trade show display, and innovation topics.

The first year of EcoCAR 3 emphasized the use of math-based design tools and simulation techniques for designing a successful vehicle architecture that reduces energy consumption, well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe emissions. Each team will receive their 2016 Camaro this fall.

In years two, three and four, students will rebuild the vehicle based on their new architecture and continue to refine, test and improve the vehicle’s operation.

Without having the full picture of the attributes of the new 2016 Camaro, the students from The Ohio State University were able to develop a strategy that can turn this high-performance vehicle into a cutting-edge, eco-friendly alternative. Not only does the 2016 Camaro’s leaner, stiffer platform provide an optimal base vehicle for these students to achieve their powertrain goals, the exterior of the vehicle was designed to specifically enhance efficiency.

—Al Oppenheiser, Chevrolet Camaro Vehicle Chief Engineer

Established by DOE and GM, and managed by Argonne National Laboratory, EcoCAR 3 is the latest Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) aimed at developing the next generation of automotive leaders. The four-year program concludes summer 2018.

Additional sponsors joining the DOE and GM include the following: MathWorks, California Air Resources Board, Freescale, Clean Cities, AVL Powertrain Engineering, Robert Bosch, LLC, ETAS, PACCAR, dSPACE, Snap-On, Siemens PLM Software, GKN Driveline, Transportation Research Center, Denso, Champlain Cable, Woodward, Proterra, Ricardo, Mentor Graphics, New Eagle, Tesa Tape, Vector, Delphi, EcoMotors, EPRI, A123 Systems, and Flextronics.

EcoCAR 3 sponsors have provided more than $718 million in software, hardware and cash donations to the 16 participating universities in just the first year. The majority of this contribution is software, stressing the design emphasis of the program’s first year.

College Students Compete To Make Camaros More Efficient

GM is donating 16 Chevrolet Camaros to the EcoCar Challenge, throwing a twist into the tradition of modifying American muscle machines. Instead of making these Camaros go faster, 16 college teams will compete over the next four years attempting to minimize the Camaro’s environmental impact without sacrificing its performance or iconic image.

The EcoCar3 Challenge is a four year engineering course that includes 16 teams from the likes of Penn State and Wayne State Universaity. The teams must strive to balance fuel economy and performance in their new Camaros, and nw for the challenge are cost constraints, as well as calling for greater degrees of innovation. While not known for their efficiency or green credentials, Camaros have been converted using environmentally-friendly methods before.The winner of the three-year EcoCar2 Challenge was Penn State, which turned a donated Chevy Malibu into an E85-burning plug-in hybrid.

Basically, a slighty-bigger Chevy Volt that prefers corn to petrol. Cool stuff, right? All I ever built in college was a bunch of bad habits and a pile of debt.

The program is a major driver of engineering talent into the arms of GM, which has hired some 100 student competitors from past EcoCar challenges. While the article doesn’t specifiy, it’s safe to assume these are base model Camaro V6 vehicles, rather than the gas-guzzling Camaro SS, which would present a whole ‘nother set of challenges.

There, I just found the theme for the EcoCar4 Challenge; a 400 horsepower Camaro SS that can get 40 MPG on the highway.

Source: The Detroit News | EcoCar3 Challenge

EcoCAR 3 competition to use Chevy Camaro as base vehicle

General Motors is continuing its partnership with the US Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory for the EcoCAR 3 collegiate advanced vehicle technology competition. and will donate a Chevrolet Camaro to each one of the 16 universities that were recently selected for the exclusive competition.

For EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future, GM donated Chevrolet Malibus; for EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, GM donated Saturn Vues; and for Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility, the company donated Chevrolet Equinoxes.

EcoCAR 3 challenges university students across North America to design, build and optimize eco-friendly powertrains over the course of the next four years. Students must also consider cost and explore innovation, while retaining the vehicle’s performance, safety and consumer appeal. Schools selected for EcoCAR 3 are:

Arizona State University California State University, Los Angeles Colorado State University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Georgia Institute of Technology McMaster University Mississippi State University Ohio State University

Pennsylvania State University University of Tennessee, Knoxville University of Alabama University of Washington University of Waterloo Virginia Tech Wayne State University West Virginia University

To support the goals, students will explore a variety of advanced propulsion systems, lightweight materials, improve aerodynamics, and utilize alternative fuels.

GM will also supply each team with seed money in the amount of $20,000 plus an additional $10,000 in program-initiation funding for teams who were not previously included in the EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future or EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge series in an effort to diminish any disadvantage for new teams.

Teams will follow a real-world Vehicle Development Process (VDP) to design and integrate their advanced technology solutions into GM-donated Camaro, gaining hands-on experience with industry-leading engineering tools and the latest vehicle components and technologies.