Current Issue
Vol.81 No.2, 2009
Getting There
Thankful that your plug-in hybrid urban vehicle charged so quickly overnight through the energy in the solar cells on your roof, you rise early to catch that flight to Europe.
Then, your Blackberry sounds; your flight is running an hour late. Now you have a moment to stop at the coffee shop even though it’s rush hour, because the smart traffic control boxes are regulating traffic lights to eliminate congestion. Over your morning java, you check in for your flight via your Blackberry.
A Driving Force in Automotive Research
At Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research, faculty and students examine transportation alternatives, ask unconventional questions — and then seek answers.
Pitting the desires of consumers against energy, infrastructure and environmental needs requires researchers and industry to ask whether tomorrow’s vehicles need to be drastically different than today’s, says CAR director Giorgio Rizzoni.
Another Milestone
Isaac Harper was on the Salt Flats in Utah in 2004 when the first Buckeye Bullet set a national record of 314.9 mph in an electric vehicle powered by batteries.
Now a senior, he was the team leader this year as the Buckeye Bullet 2 reached a new landmark: the fastest time for its new technology, fuel cells, of 223.334 mph.
Bright and Early
When Robert Siston was hired as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Ohio State in 2006, he made space in his new office for the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum award he received here as a student six years earlier.
Now that he is taking the role as mentor, he sees how undergraduate research benefits both himself and the students.
Engineering Research Services
Professor Steve Yurkovich’s work in laboratories at the College of Engineering’s Center for Automotive Research will improve engines made by General Motors.
It’s one thing for a faculty member like Yurkovich to use his or her expertise to solve problems for industry, but it’s quite another task to negotiate the twists and turns of legal, financial and intellectual property agreements.
