TransForum Vol. 4, No. 4

FutureTruck Student Engineering Competition Finishes Strong, New Three-Year Competition Set to Take Center Stage

When it was first conceived in the late 1990s, the plan was a bold one: bring together the vast resources of government, industry, and academia in a partnership to develop advanced vehicle technologies addressing one of the world's primary sources of energy consumption. At the heart of the effort would be teams of college students designing and implementing innovative new automotive systems with the help of both donated and purchased products, components, and software from corporate sponsors.

Participants at FutureTruck 2004

On June 9-17, 2004, at Ford's Michigan Proving Ground, 15 teams of college students from the United States and Canada participated in the final year of one of the most successful of these partnerships — FutureTruck, a unique five-year college-level automotive engineering competition. For the second year in a row, one or more of the student teams succeeded in reengineering a conventional sport utility vehicle (SUV) into a lower-emissions vehicle, with at least 25% higher fuel economy, without compromising the performance, utility, and safety that consumers demand. Ford, along with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), was the headline sponsor of the competition during 2002-2004, while General Motors headlined the first two years (1999-2001).

Why ask college students to help find ways of reducing the' energy consumption and emissions of SUVs? One of the best reasons is that students have yet to learn all of the 'rules of the trade,' which means they aren't as likely to be bound by those rules. Students are usually eager to push the technology envelope and think outside the gear box. Unfortunately, few programs encourage and reward this sort of creative problem solving. That's one area where DOE's student engineering competitions have proven extremely valuable.

'In addition to reengineering the vehicles, we also wanted to help reengineer tomorrow's engineers,' said Kristen De La Rosa, FutureTruck Project Manager. 'One of our primary goals was to help develop a new generation of automotive engineers with a greater passion for, and understanding of, the environmental and energy-related issues involved in designing and producing automobiles.' De La Rosa added that up to 60% of the students in the competitions take jobs in the automotive industry upon graduation and that Ford alone has hired over 200 of these young engineers.

This year, after enduring site-wide power outages, torrential rains, and a muddy morass of an off-road course, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) again took first place. The UW vehicle achieved a 33% increase in on-road fuel economy and a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions with respect to the stock Explorer that Ford donated to each FutureTruck team.

The students had a third year to work on their Ford vehicles, which gave them a chance to really enhance system performance and robustness. Wisconsin's winning vehicle, a parallel hybrid, used an advanced 1.8-liter diesel engine with a sophisticated multiple catalyst system that achieved ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) emissions standards — a remarkable accomplishment for any vehicle, let alone an SUV, and only one of a handful of times it has been accomplished in over a decade of DOE vehicle competitions. Wisconsin's Explorer delivered over 25 mpg (gas equivalent) using biodiesel in mixed city and highway on-road driving and came within 0.4 seconds of the stock vehicle's acceleration performance on a quarter-mile track from a standing start. Despite the addition of a nickel-metal hydride battery pack and an electric motor, the student-built aluminum frame helped reduce overall vehicle weight by more than 200 pounds.

Pennsylvania State claimed second place with its innovative diesel-emission-reduction system in a parallel hybrid configuration that used a 2.5-liter diesel engine with an AC induction electric motor. Third place went to Georgia Tech, which employed a powerful through-the-road parallel hybrid-electric powertrain that would be easy to install as a factory option. All in all, the FutureTruck competition prototype vehicles displayed a remarkable level of technical sophistication and proved that light-duty trucks, such as pickups, vans, and SUVs, could be made substantially more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.

'Light-duty trucks today comprise 54% of all auto sales, and these larger vehicles have historically been less fuel efficient than passenger cars,' said Bob Larsen, director of Argonne's Center for Transportation Research, which manages FutureTruck. 'We knew we could have a proportionately greater positive impact by tackling the fuel consumption and environmental issues associated with light-duty trucks — so we partnered first with GM and then with Ford to work on two of the top-selling SUVs, the Suburban and the Explorer.' While the teams don't have to take into account all of the same safety, reliability, and cost factors that go into designing a production vehicle, the student engineering experience does give everyone a better understanding of some potential solutions for achieving increased fuel economy and lower emissions, Larsen added.

The success of FutureTruck has attracted the attention of other nations, which have shown interest in using the competition as a model for their own student engineering events.

Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainability

DOE plans to follow FutureTruck with a new three-year competition called 'Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainability.' General Motors Corporation is cosponsoring the new competition, and 17 teams from across North America have been selected to participate.

Participating teams are challenged to reengineer a GM crossover sport utility vehicle to minimize energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle's existing utility and performance. Year 1 will focus on modeling and simulating the vehicle powertrain and vehicle subsystems selected by each school. Years 2 and 3 will require teams to develop and integrate their advanced powertrain and subsystems into the donated GM crossover vehicle. At the conclusion of each competition year, teams will come together to compete against each other while undergoing extensive judging and evaluation.

Teams will follow a real-world approach modeled after GM's Global Vehicle Development Process. This process gives students valuable experience in real-world engineering practices, resource allocation, and meeting deadlines. While previous student engineering competitions focused primarily on hardware modifications, Challenge X includes a unique focus on modeling and simulation, as well as subsystem development and testing. Because the technical focus of the competition is broadened to include more aspects of the entire vehicle development process, the university teams will have a greater opportunity to expand their learning and refine their vehicle solutions.

September 22, 2004