Ohio State Engineering Students Take Top Honors in Designing Vehicle of the Future

A team of Ohio State College of Engineering students won first place, surpassing 16 other teams from around the world, in the first year of a three-year U.S. Department of Energy competition to improve automotive technology.

Ohio State is one of 17 universities participating in EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, in which students must re-engineer a 2009 Saturn Vue to achieve improved fuel economy and reduced emissions while retaining the vehicle’ performance and consumer appeal. The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors as well as Natural Resources Canada and others.

Successful completion of this first year of EcoCAR, which took place in Toronto in June, earned the Ohio State team a key to a new 2009 Saturn Vue and a place in the second phase of the competition, which will take place at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

Read more about the Ohio State EcoCAR team’ successful competition at http://engineering.osu.edu/news/?p=566.