The Ohio State University

A team of Ohio State College of Engineering students has placed third in the nation in a four-year, U.S. Department of Energy competition to improve automotive technology in engine efficiency and emissions. 

The Ohio State Reverb was announced among the winners at the conclusion of the Challenge X competition yesterday at the nation's capitol. In addition, the Department of Energy named Ohio State as one of 16 universities selected to participate in the next competition, called 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's performance and consumer appeal.  

"It is pretty evident judging by the price of gasoline that the future of transportation is not going to be like the past," said Giorgio Rizzoni, director of the Center for Automotive Research and professor of mechanical engineering. "The automotive industry needs to look for new solutions and will look to engineers for these solutions. We have been selected, through a very competitive process, to represent the best schools in the country to address these problems and work on them."

In addition to taking third place overall, the Ohio State Challenge X team won the Published Technology Report Award and the Control Strategy Presentation Award. The team also received first place in the MathWorks model-based design and third place in both outreach and Freescale Semiconductor: Silicon on the Move.

The four-year competition culminated this week with a road rally, which began May 13 in New York and ended Tuesday (May 20) in Washington, D.C., where the Challenge X student teams displayed their vehicles at the nation's capitol. Accompanied by Gregory Washington, associate dean for research and professor of mechanical engineering, and Rizzoni, the Ohio State team visited Congressmen David Hobson and Charlie Wilson on Tuesday and described their accomplishments and goals. Later in the day, Senator George Voinovich and Congressman Dave Hobson both visited the team and took a spin in the Reverb.

Challenge X is one of a series of competitions held by the U.S. Department of Energy to improve energy efficiency in cars. Only 17 teams were selected to participate in the four-year competition, which involves the re-engineering of a Chevy Equinox, a crossover sport utility vehicle, to make it more environmentally-friendly yet still attractive for consumers. The teams had to minimize energy consumption, emissions, and greenhouse gases while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle's utility and performance.

Nicknamed "The Ohio State Reverb" by team members, this SUV is now a shadow of its former gas-guzzling self. Ohio State team members spent the past four years designing energy-efficient ways to improve the car, replacing the standard engine and transmission with a GM 1.9-liter turbodiesel and a six-speed automatic transmission. The rear axle is powered by an electric drive and uses battery packs like those found in a Toyota Prius hybrid for power.

The Reverb received gold medals in categories of control strategy, technical presentation, dynamic consumer acceptability, published technical report, autocross and acceleration. The gold medal signifies that the vehicle exceeds expectations and is essentially a production-ready prototype in those categories, Rizzoni said.

Silver medals were awarded to the team for AVL drive quality, static consumer acceptability, greenhouse gas emissions, on-road emissions energy use, road rally energy use and wheel-to-wheel petroleum energy use. The team also received a bronze medal for tailpipe emissions.

Ohio State Challenge X students are blogging about their experience online at http://www.osuchallengex.com/content/blogcategory/0/61/.