Contact: Robbie S. Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--As Matthew C. Doude prepares to lead Mississippi State's EcoCar team for the third and final time, the North American automotive design competition in which he and the other university students are competing already has changed their lives.
Doude, the overall team leader, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and McCool native, has led the MSU group to third- and first-place finishes, respectively, in years one and two of the competition. Now in Detroit, Mich., for the two-week concluding event, he can feel a sense of accomplishment about how they have significantly improved the General Motors Saturn VUE.
"Beginning with a blank screen, you always wonder how it's going to work when you put it together," Doude said before leaving for the Motor City. "Now, we know very well."
Starting with an assigned factory version of the same vehicle, teams in the competition's first year are challenged to make redesigns using computer models and simulations. The following year, they must turn the designs into reality on the actual vehicles.
The result is a plug-in hybrid with an electric power range of 60 miles. During the 2010 competition, MSU's vehicle achieved a 118-miles-per-gallon equivalent of city and highway mileage.
EcoCar is the second competition involving Mississippi State and 15 other universities and research institutions throughout the United States and Canada. It focuses on lowering fuel consumption and emissions, while maintaining utility, safety and performance.
MSU won the previous international competition known as ChallengeX, which also was co-sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. The university team already has accepted an invitation to compete in EcoCar2, which begins next year.
Marshall Molen, MSU's EcoCar faculty adviser, said he expects another win for the team this year. He considers his involvement with the EcoCar and ChallengeX competitions as "one of the most rewarding experiences of my career."
Molen said he enjoys seeing the students as they start out as dedicated students and develop into young engineering professionals who can compete with anyone in the country.
"They have developed the confidence to know that they have the skills and ability to tackle the challenges they will confront in the workplace," he said.
In addition to the students' professional development, Molen also has witnessed the Mississippi land-grant institution's rise in respectability in the eyes of automotive employers. He has heard any number of executives from General Motors and other automotive suppliers discuss the impressive results of the MSU team.
As a result, Molen often fields requests from representatives of high-tech companies about EcoCar students for internships and future employment.
One such student is Jonathan D. "Jon" Moore, an electrical engineering graduate student from Fort Worth, Texas. After the EcoCar competition has ended, he will begin a summer internship with Texas-based Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
Moore said he considered a number of universities for graduate school, but selected MSU's Bagley College of Engineering largely on the basis of the future opportunities he would have through EcoCar and EcoCar2.
"It's not everyday that you work on a high-voltage battery system in a hybrid vehicle," Moore said, adding that he already has plans for EcoCar2's vehicle, a Chevrolet Malibu.
Senior Joshua C. "Josh" Hoop, a mechanical engineering major from Brentwood, Tenn., is another emerging leader with EcoCar who will help lead EcoCar2. A team member since his sophomore year, he said the hands-on application of what he learns in the classroom makes a difference.
"We're engineering from the ground up," Hoop said.
Along with engineering work related to the vehicles, Hoop and other team members will make technical presentations to numerous judges throughout the competition. This part of the process requires them to sharpen their communication skills.
"We're going to discuss our improvements from year one to year three," Hoop said. "We added a rear motor to help with acceleration and efficiency."
As Doude concludes his time as EcoCar team leader, he expressed confidence that his successors will keep high standards and ensure future success.
"They know that, if something goes wrong, not to panic," he said. "They've learned how to handle situations."
Follow MSU's EcoCar team throughout the competition on Twitter via @MSStateEcoCAR, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/msuecocar.