Austin Showcases Challenge X Student-Designed Vehicles

Austin Showcases Challenge X Student-Designed, Environmentally Friendly Vehicles

Engineering students from 17 North American universities are converging here to learn how to use advanced technologies to deliver environmentally friendly, functional and fuel efficient vehicles to consumers.

Students from the University of Texas-Austin are among those participating in Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility, an engineering competition that tasks students to re-engineer a Chevrolet Equinox crossover SUV using advanced propulsion technologies that increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact, while retaining its consumer appeal.

General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are lead sponsors of Challenge X, which began in 2004. GM and DOE will extend the program, originally slated for completion this year, into 2008. The fourth year will give student teams the opportunity to focus on independent customer acceptability and over-the-road reliability and durability of their advanced propulsion systems with real-world evaluation outside of the laboratory and proving ground environment.

Today, city officials and journalists are test-driving the engineering students' vehicles that are exploring the latest in advanced technology, including plug-in hybrids and alternative fuels.

"The President's State of the Union address last week called for alternative energy solutions to keep America moving," said Austin Mayor Will Wynn. "Austin has a proud history of developing transportation initiatives to help save energy and preserve the environment, and we welcome these young automotive engineers and their innovative vehicles to our green city."

At the Austin Winter Workshop, being held this week, students are learning how to refine their vehicles to near-showroom quality, a required component of the program's third year. While in Austin, they also are conducting cutting-edge on-road emissions testing with equipment provided by Sensors, Inc.

Bob Kruse, executive director of GM's North American Engineering Operations, said the Challenge X teams are getting real-world experience by following GM's Global Vehicle Development Process.

"This valuable, hands-on learning is providing them the necessary skills to embark on a career in engineering with an important, competitive advantage," Kruse said. "In fact, since the competition began, we've hired nearly 30 Challenge X students to join our GM engineering team."

"Challenge X is a perfect example of how government, industry and academia are working together to develop more energy-efficient and 'greener' automotive technologies," said Ed Wall, program manager, FreedomCAR & Vehicle Technologies, U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. "The vehicles we are showcasing today run on biofuels, ethanol and even hydrogen - all of which can help reduce our dependence on petroleum."

Austin-based sponsors Freescale Semiconductor and National Instruments are among the more than 30 sponsors providing funding and product donations for the Challenge X competition.

The first year of the Challenge X program, which began in 2004, focused on math-based simulation, modeling, subsystem development and testing. This phase of the program was designed to finalize each team's design approach to improved fuel efficiency and reduced petroleum consumption.

In year two, student teams performed initial integration of their experimental powertrain designs into the Chevrolet Equinox. This included implementing various technical approaches to hybridized propulsion, energy storage and fuel type. The resulting field of entries includes bio-diesel hybrids, gasoline hybrids, bio-ethanol hybrids, plug in hybrids and fuel cell propulsion schemes

Students are spending the current third year refining their vehicles to near-showroom levels of performance and consumer acceptability. Years two and three culminate in a competition in which team vehicles are judged in areas such as towing capacity, acceleration, ride and handling, noise and vibration, greenhouse gas impact, total well-to-wheels fuel economy, emissions, and consumer acceptability.

The Challenge X teams will reconvene for the third-year competition May 30 to June 7 at GM's Milford Proving Ground in Michigan, where they will vie for more than $90,000 in cash prizes and awards.

The Challenge X teams include: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Mississippi State University; Michigan Technological University; Pennsylvania State University; Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Indiana); San Diego State University; Texas Tech University; The Ohio State 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 (Ontario) and West Virginia University - General Motors.