{"71203":{"#nid":"71203","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech to Compete in EcoCAR Challenge","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Institute of Technology has been selected as one of 17 teams chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and Natural Resources Canada to participate in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, a collegiate vehicle engineering competition set to begin in the Fall of 2008.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EEcoCAR will challenge university engineering students across North America to reengineer a 2009 Saturn VUE to achieve improved fuel economy and reduced green house gas emissions, while retaining the vehicle\u0027s performance and consumer appeal.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EStudents will design and build advanced propulsion solutions that are based on the vehicle categories from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) zero emissions vehicle (ZEV) regulations. They will be encouraged to explore a variety of cutting-edge clean vehicle solutions, including full-function electric, range-extended electric, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell technologies. In addition, they will incorporate lightweight materials into the vehicles, improve aerodynamics and utilize alternative fuels such as ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EDuring the three-year program, General Motors will provide production vehicles, vehicle components, seed money, technical mentoring and operational support. The U.S. Department of Energy and its research and development facility, Argonne National Laboratory, will provide competition management, team evaluation, and technical and logistical support. Through sponsoring such advanced vehicle technology competitions, GM and the U.S. Department of Energy are developing the next generation of scientists and engineers.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022I couldn\u0027t be more excited about the project. It\u0027s a great opportunity for Georgia Tech\u0027s students to show their creativity and technical excellence in addressing one of society\u0027s greatest needs,\u0022 said Dr. Tom Fuller, director of the Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies in the Georgia Tech Research Institute, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech and a lead faculty advisor for the project. \u0022Working together with Georgia Tech\u0027s world-class research community and coordinating with industry, EcoCAR will serve as a significant demonstration project for the College of Engineering and the Institute. The interdisciplinary and multifaceted nature of this project will foster collaboration among students in Mechanical, Electrical and Computer, Civil and Environmental, and Chemical Engineering as well as students in the Colleges of Management, Sciences, and Liberal Arts.  Furthermore, this project fits well within the scope and heart of Georgia Tech\u0027s Strategic Energy Institute, whose charge is to actively engage in and facilitate energy technology development.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn the first year, teams will develop their vehicle designs through the use of GM\u0027s Global Vehicle Development Process - the modeling and simulation process currently used to develop all of GM\u0027s vehicles. Sophisticated hardware in the loop (HIL) and software in the loop (SIL) systems will be utilized, and teams will be challenged to model and simulate the integration of their subsystems into the overall vehicle design. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022EcoCAR is the latest in a series of Department-sponsored student competitions that will foster the training of the next generation of engineers who will develop the clean vehicle technology solutions to enhance our energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,\u0022 said Ed Wall, DOE\u0027s Vehicle Technologies Program manager. \u0022It will be exciting to watch as the students work over the next three years to design, build, test and showcase their vehicles.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe emphasis is on optimizing a practical, realizable solution that will meet the goals of the competition. During the second and third years of the competition, students will build the vehicle and continue to refine, test, and improve vehicle operation. At the end of years two and three, the re-engineered student vehicle prototypes will compete in a week-long competition of engineering tests. These tests will be similar to the tests GM conducts to determine a prototype\u0027s readiness for production. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Greenhouse gas, Regulated Emissions, and Energy in Transportation (GREET) model, developed at Argonne National Laboratory, will be used to assess a well-to-wheel analysis of the net greenhouse gas impacts, energy consumption and pollutant emissions of each technology approach the teams select.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to sponsorship from GM and DOE, Platinum sponsor Government of Canada is providing extensive operational support. The other Platinum sponsors - dSPACE, National Instruments, The MathWorks and Freescale Semiconductor - are providing critical software and hardware components. Gold sponsors are The National Science Foundation and MotoTron Corporation. Silver sponsors are SnapOn Tools and Renewable Fuels Association. Bronze sponsors are: Delphi Corporation, EcoMotors, CarSim and Bosch.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"The Georgia Institute of Technology has been selected as one of 17 teams chosen by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and Natural Resources Canada to participate in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, a collegiate vehicle engineering competition set to begin in the Fall of 2008.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Tech to compete to create clean vehicle"}],"uid":"27281","created_gmt":"2008-06-03 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:01:10","author":"Lisa Grovenstein","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2008-06-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2008-06-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"71204":{"id":"71204","type":"image","title":"Tech Tower","body":null,"created":"1449177358","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:15:58","changed":"1475894630","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:50"}},"media_ids":["71204"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ecocarchallenge.org\/","title":"EcoCAR Web site"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1850","name":"alternative energy"},{"id":"2086","name":"clean vehicle"},{"id":"2084","name":"EcoCAR"},{"id":"2085","name":"NeXt Challenge"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003ELisa Grovenstein\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications \u0026amp; Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=lgrovenste3\u0022\u003EContact Lisa Grovenstein\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E404-894-8835\u003C\/strong\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lisa.grovenstein@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}