TransForum Vol. 5, No. 2

University of Waterloo Students Win First-Year Challenge X Competition

Students from the University of Waterloo, located in Ontario, Canada, took top honors at the first-year Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility engineering competition, held June 5–8 at GM University in Auburn Hills, Michigan. General Motors (GM), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Argonne sponsored the event, which challenged 17 universities from across North America to create a virtual advanced propulsion technology vehicle solution with the goal of improving on-road fuel economy and reducing emissions.

The Waterloo team designed a series fuel cell hybrid that uses a Hydrogenics polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel- cell engine with a COBASYS 288-volt nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery and a Ballard 54-kW electric drive.

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 turbo direct-injection (TDI) engine that runs on biodiesel fuel, a DSG transmission, and a Ballard 65/45-kW drive motor. The Ohio State University team was awarded third place overall for their design, a through-the-road parallel biodiesel hybrid that uses an EV-1 electric drivetrain, a Panasonic NiMH battery, and a 1.9-liter Fiat 110-kW compression-ignition, direct-injection (CIDI) engine with an integrated starter/alternator and an automatic transmission.

"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 DOEs Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

"You are working on the same challenges that our GM engineers continually work on every day — high-efficiency, high-performance vehicles that consume less fuel and produce fewer emissions from the well to the wheel," Larry Burns, Vice President of GM Research and Development and Planning, told the students. "This hands-on learning will provide you an unparalleled experience that will enable you to embark on a career in engineering with a competitive advantage."

All 17 teams met the minimum Challenge X goals during the first year of the competition, and each team received the keys to a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox on June 9.

The three-year program follows GMs Global Vehicle Development Process. Year 1 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 2 and 3, students will integrate their advanced powertrains and subsystems into the Chevrolet Equinox, a compact sport-utility vehicle that already provides competitive fuel economy. Competitions will be held at the end of the 2006 and 2007 academic years to showcase the teams learning and vehicle development from year to year.

"The impressive applied technologies that I have seen have come from students creativity and design," said Steve Gurski, lead technical coordinator of the Challenge X program at Argonne. "In the past," Gurski said, "students had one year to make significant improvements on the vehicles once the competition was over. What we expect to see in three years of refinement are some fantastic vehicles."

November 3, 2005