OSU Ecocar Team with Blazer
OSU
The Ohio State team won this year’s EcoCAR Mobility Challenge competition by coming up with a redesign for a 2019 Chevy Blazer to make it more efficient and better adapted for the new age of the automobile. What this means specifically is that these college students have spent time thinking about ways to “apply advanced propulsion systems, electrification, SAE Level 2 automation and vehicle connectivity” to an SUV like the Blazer while also considering emissions, safety and consumer acceptability. The vehicles in the competition also need to be semi-automated and ready for the car sharing market.
EcoCAR is a four-year collegiate engineering competition that ends with actual converted vehicles being tested. For the first year, the 12 teams competing in the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge were asked to come up with new ideas for user-interface components, the powertrain and sensors, as well as new code for the cars OS. For this first year’s competition, OSU scored 887 out of 1000 overall points and gets a $10,000 prize. Virginia Tech came in second place and the University of Alabama took third place for this first year.
.@OhioState‘s team took first place in the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge Year One Competition, earning $20,750 to support the university’s advanced vehicle technology program. https://t.co/ZZE34KYcpe @OSUengineering @OSUEcoCAR
— Ohio State News (@OhioStateNews) May 24, 2019
Competitions like EcoCAR are not conducted only for the wins, but to, you know, learn something. That’s why the OSU team has been hosting events like this three-day summer school in advanced mobility.
We are in the final stretch of Year 1! Join us this evening at 7:30 pm EST for our Awards Ceremony livestream on YouTube and see if your team will reign supreme: https://t.co/EeuR4cWAb8
— EcoCAR Challenge (@EcoCARChallenge) May 22, 2019
EcoCAR is run by the U.S. Department of Energy and the main sponsors are General Motors and MathWorks.
