University of Waterloo Students Win
First Year GM and DOE Challenge X Competition
Students from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada took top honors at
the first-year competition Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility
engineering competition. GM and the U.S. Department of Energy served as lead
sponsors for the event.
The Waterloo team was among 17 universities from across North America that
created a virtual advanced propulsion technology vehicle solution with the goal
of improving on-road fuel economy and reducing emissions. The Waterloo team's
propulsion technology design is a series fuel cell hybrid that uses a
Hydrogenics PEM fuel cell engine with a COBASYS 288-volt NiMH battery and a
Ballard 54-kilowatt electric drive. The design will be engineered into a 2005
Chevrolet Equinox in years two and three of the Challenge X competition.
The second place advanced propulsion technology solution, designed by students
at the University of Akron, is a through-the-road parallel hybrid with a
1.9-liter Volkswagen TDI engine that runs on biodiesel fuel and a Ballard
65-kilowatt/45-kilowatt drive motor. Ohio State University was awarded third
place overall with its design for a through-the-road parallel biodiesel hybrid
that uses a Panasonic NiMH battery and a 1.9-liter Fiat 110-kilowatt CIDI
engine.
"Developing the advanced technologies that reduce U.S. dependence on
imported oil is critical to the future prosperity of our country. Challenge X
shows that the cooperation of industry, government and academia is an excellent
approach to developing more energy-efficient and 'greener' automotive
technologies," said Ed Wall, program manager for the FreedomCAR and Vehicle
Technologies Office of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
The three-year program follows GM's Global Vehicle Development Process. Year one
focused on vehicle simulation and modeling and subsystem development and
testing, introducing the students to the engineering trade-offs that occur in
the early stages of vehicle design. In years two and three, students will
integrate their advanced powertrains and subsystems into the Chevrolet Equinox,
a compact SUV that already provides competitive fuel economy. Competitions are
held at the end of the 2006 and 2007 academic years to showcase the teams'
learning and vehicle development from year to year.
The additional teams participating in Challenge X include Michigan Technological
University; Mississippi State University; Pennsylvania State University; Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology; San Diego State University; Texas Tech University;
University of California, Davis; University of Michigan; University of
Tennessee; University of Texas at Austin; University of Tulsa; University of
Wisconsin-Madison; Virginia Tech; and West Virginia University.
DOE and GM are the headline sponsors for Challenge X. Other sponsors include
Natural Resources Canada; The MathWorks; National Instruments; the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency; the U.S. Department of Transportation; National
Science Foundation; Visteon Corporation; Delphi Corporation; BP; Dana
Corporation; Freescale Semiconductor; Cobasys; ChevronTexaco Technology
Ventures; Johnson Controls, Inc.; Ballard Power Systems, Inc.; Michelin North
America; AVL North America, Inc.; Sensors, Inc.; dSPACE, Inc.; IAV Automotive
Engineering, Inc.; Opal-RT Technologies, Inc.; Compact Power, Inc.; Governors'
Ethanol Coalition; Renewable Fuels Association; MotoTron Corporation; UGS;
Ricardo; Gamma Technologies, Inc.; Igus, Inc.; Maxwell Technologies; Hydrogenics
Corporation; OnStar and XM Satellite Radio.
Published 06/17/2005
©
2005 Greenmedia Publishing Ltd.