Ohio State EcoCAR 2 Team Places Second at Year One Competition
Posted: May 29, 2012
The Ohio State EcoCAR 2 Team
The Ohio State University EcoCAR 2 team placed second out of 15 collegiate teams competing in Year One of a three year challenge to re-engineer a GM-donated 2013 Chevy Malibu. The universities competing in EcoCAR 2 gathered in Los Angeles for six days of judged competition last week with $100,000 in prize money up for grabs.
The Ohio State team had an overall score of 919 points out of 1,000, which is the highest score ever recorded by an OSU team in 16 years of Department of Energy advanced vehicle technology competitions.
"The level of the team's dedication and the magnitude of their technical achievements even exceeds their impressive list of competition awards," says faculty advisor Shawn Midlam-Mohler. "The team will be building the vehicle they designed over the next year and are looking forward to another top finish in this premier advanced vehicle technology competition."
Year One of the competition series emphasized engineering design through modeling and simulation to select and virtually test the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle architecture. Teams also started developing their hybrid control strategy using hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation tools and designing major vehicle subsystems, including hybrid powertrain, energy storage, and high-voltage electrical systems. The OSU EcoCAR 2 team was extremely successful in receiving recognition for their work in all of the key areas of modeling, simulation, and control. The earned the Mathworks Modeling Award, for superior and innovative approach to model based design and control; the dSpace Embedded Success Award, for use of real-time control hardware and software; and first place in the Final Controller Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) evaluation.
Throughout the competition events, EcoCAR 2 teams put their designs to the test, giving presentations to industry and government professionals based on their mechanical, electrical, control and HIL strategies, project initiation approval, outreach and business plans, and trade show display. The Ohio State team took a number of other awards, including:
- Second place, Project Initialization Approval event
- Third place, Controls Presentation
- Third place, Business Program
- Second place, Tradeshow Presentation
- Third place, overall Outreach Program
- First place, Skit Video
- Best Creative Outreach Event
- Outstanding Women in Engineering Award: Amanda Hyde, MS candidate in mechanical and aerospace engineering
"The EcoCAR experience is a perfect complement to the high quality engineering education our students receive in the classroom. EcoCAR embodies all of the best attributes of the experiential education we strive to deliver in the Ohio State College of Engineering, and we are proud to be a part of this prestigious program," says Giorgio Rizzoni, faculty advisor to the team.
Now that their vehicle architectures are finalized, the 15 teams also received the keys to the GM-donated 2013 Chevrolet Malibu they will spend the next two years rebuilding, testing, and refining. The Ohio State team is already at work preparing to apply their models to the real vehicle.
Follow the team at http://ecocar2.osu.edu.
