GM and DOE look to engineering students for answers

Consulting Specifying Engineer Magazine ^ | 12/21/2007

[Professional Engineer]

Engineering students around the country will be able to apply their education to a real-world challenge. The EcoCAR challenge, a contest sponsored by General Motors and the Dept. of Energy, will offer students the opportunity to design a car that gets maximum fuel economy and minimal emissions. The students’ requirements include designing and building advanced propulsion solutions that emulate vehicle categories from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) zero emissions vehicle requirements. The alternative technologies include electric hybrids, fuel cells, bio-fuels, lightweight materials, and high-tech aerodynamics.

The EcoCAR challenge launches in the 2008-2009 academic year as a three-year program with GM, who provides production vehicles, parts, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support; while the DOE and the Argonne National Laboratory research facility will provide competition management, team evaluation, and technical support. The student team will develop their vehicle designs using GM’s modeling simulation process in the first year. In the second and third years, the team will build the vehicle and continue to refine, test, and improve vehicle operation. In April 2008, the judges will choose 16 finalists to participate in the contest.

For more information click here

[Professional Engineer]

GM did a similar student project in the earlier 1990’s with ethanol powered vehicles.

[facedown]

[Red Badger]

[Brilliant]

Sounds like they don’t want to hire real engineers, so they are using the free services of students.

[Red Badger]

GM did a similar student project in the earlier 1990’s with ethanol powered vehicles.

[Red Badger]

GM did a similar student project in the earlier 1990’s with ethanol powered vehicles.

Totally unnecessary......

[delacoert]

mark for later

[incredulous joe]

Complain all you want about not gettin’ where you want to go, at least there is no “carbon footprint”

[Red Badger]

Methanol, ethanol contain lots of carbon............

[sionnsar]

My daughter in such a project a couple of years ago (she's building a continuously variable speed transmission she designed for her Master's project):

[incredulous joe]

Doh!!

[Elsie]

GM and DOE look to engineering students for answers

We alREADY have answers; it's just that they are SO darned EXPENSIVE!!

[Tallguy]

This is fine as teaching exercises go. It may even help GM do a little talent-scouting. But I wouldn’t look for anything truly innovative from undergrad engineering students.

[FastCoyote]

Now CVS transmissions are cool, a lot of this other stuff is wasted effort to satisfy the Goreites. What kind of CVS? There are variable arm ones, and variable pulley kinds (hey, I’m at a loss for words).

[sionnsar]

This is a variable-pulley type.

[FastCoyote]

How many horsies will it put through it? Who knows, I run into venture capitalists somewhat frequently.

[RightWhale]

GM used to have a car design contest. They had about 90% of the junior high school males making little wooden cars fifty years ago. That was when style ruled.

[Professional Engineer]

Sounds like they don’t want to hire real engineers, so they are using the free services of students.

I think of it more as giving students the chance to do real engineering.

[Professional Engineer]

My daughter in such a project a couple of years ago (she's building a continuously variable speed transmission she designed for her Master's project):

Very cool. Now for the real question:

Does she have a sliderule?