Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State engineering majors are transforming a 2005 sport utility vehicle into a diesel-electric hybrid automobile they hope will get 35 miles to a gallon of gas when it's ready to roll.
The students are members of the university's Challenge X team, which is in the middle of a three-year national competition to see who can best explore and develop advanced vehicle technologies that address important energy and environmental issues.
The MSU group is among 17 teams from colleges and universities across the country that are re-engineering 2005 Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicles to minimize energy consumption, emissions and greenhouse gases while maintaining utility and performance.
The Equinox is a so-called "crossover" model built by General Motors Corp., which donated all the Challenge X vehicles.
"During the past two years of the competition, MSU students have devoted countless hours to designing the vehicle and are now bringing an operating hybrid to fruition," said faculty adviser Marshall Molen.
The collegiate teams--including a 10-member contingent from MSU--will gather in Mesa, Ariz., May 30-June 8 to compete in the second of three national Challenge X events. The competition presents real-world challenges to the students, while providing new ideas that could significantly alter the future of vehicle design.
"The students will have an opportunity to demonstrate how well their vehicle performs," added Molen, a power electronics research professor at the university's Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems that is supporting the students' efforts.
The MSU team has designed a diesel-electric, parallel hybrid vehicle that has an internal combustion engine running the front wheels and an electric motor running the rear wheels. The diesel engine runs on B-20 bio-diesel, causing fewer emissions.
"When completed, our team is hoping for as high as 35 miles per gallon from the SUV," said team leader David Oglesby of Columbus, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
Following the morning commencement ceremony Saturday [May 13], U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and MSU President Robert H. "Doc" Foglesong gave the hybrid vehicle a test drive. The 1st District congressman, who had been the commencement speaker, was among special guests and visitors taking part in a "Ride-and-Drive" event at CAVS, a state-of-the-art research complex directed by Rand German.
In 2004, the sponsoring U.S. Department of Energy and GM announced the 17 teams chosen to participate in the three-year "Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility." Students spent their first year focusing on vehicle simulation and modeling, and subsystem development and testing. That phase of the competition climaxed a year ago with the initial national event at GM University in Auburn Hills, Mich.
For this year and in next year's concluding competition, the Challenge X teams are integrating their advanced power trains and subsystems into their redesigned vehicles. The educational emphasis now is placed on validating the modeling and simulation tools, and using them to control and refine the vehicles.
Each participating team receives $10,000 in seed money and is eligible to collect up to $25,000 in additional production parts from GM. Award money up for grabs at the second-year competition totals more than $90,000.
"More than 30 industry sponsors also provide participating teams with leading-edge math simulation software, automotive propulsion systems, fuels, emissions-control technologies, fuel cells and other tools and technologies to compete in the program," said Bob Kirkland, CAVS staff adviser for the project. "The MSU team has an additional 31 local sponsors that provide monetary and technological contributions."
The other 16 collegiate Challenge X teams include Michigan Technological, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, San Diego State, Texas Tech, Akron, California-Davis, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas-Austin, Tulsa, Waterloo (Canada), Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.
Additional information about Challenge X is available at www.challengex.org.
LOCAL EDITORS: Members of MSU's Challenge X team for 2006 include (by hometown):
COLUMBUS-- Kyle Crawford, a chemical engineering graduate student and the son of Sammy and Lucy Crawford, and David Oglesby, a mechanical engineering graduate student and the son of Kenneth and Joyce Oglesby.
HATTIESBURG--Josh VanLandingham, a senior mechanical engineering major and the son of Ruth Dubose and Vic Dubose.
HEIDELBURG--Ron Lewis, an electrical engineering graduate student and the son of Robert and Becky Lewis.
LAUDERDALE--Christopher Whitt, a mechanical engineering graduate student and the son of Lee and Debi Whitt.
MATHISTON--Amanda McAlpin, an undeclared graduate student and the daughter of Danny and Ruth McAlpin.
SLIDELL, La.--Brian Christian, a senior mechanical engineering major and the son of Terry and Sandra Christian.
STARKVILLE--Jimmy Matthews, an electrical engineering graduate student and the son of Cherian and Rachel Matthews of Bombay, India.
WELLSVILLE, N.Y.--Kennabec Walp, a computer engineering graduate student and the son of Ken and Ann Walp.
For more information about the MSU team, contact Amanda McAlpin at (662) 325-5562 or amcalpin@cavs.msstate.edu.