'Challenge X' encourages college students to improve SUV technology

ARGONNE, Ill. (May 14, 2004) — A new engineering student car competition to start in the 2004-05 academic year will be managed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

Called “Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility,” the competition invites 17 university teams from across North America to re-engineer a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox, a compact SUV that already provides competitive fuel economy, to achieve three basic goals:

• To reduce energy consumption,
• To decrease emissions and
• To maintain the stock vehicle's performance and utility features.

Sponsored primarily by the Department of Energy and General Motors, the three-year competition encourages engineering schools to participate in real-world research and math-intensive development focused on leading edge automotive propulsion, fuels, materials and emissions-control technologies. The university teams were selected in 2003 through a competitive proposal process

“Advanced vehicle technology competitions such as Challenge X, demonstrate pathways which ultimately could help reduce our dependence on oil,” said David Garman, DOE's acting undersecretary of energy and assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy. “Reducing petroleum use is vital to our nation's long-term energy security.”

“This is the first time that a student competition has emphasized the importance of fuel choice in achieving sustainability mobility,” said Tom Stephens, group vice president for GM's Powertrain Division. “Challenge X provides the student teams an opportunity to take an open-minded well-to-wheels approach to all the issues involved in energy efficiency and emissions – including the fuel source, the propulsion system and the vehicle's real world utility and consumer appeal.”

DOE, Natural Resources of Canada and various academic and industry partners have sponsored forward-thinking engineering competitions for 15 years. One of the most successful was the FutureTruck collaboration that Argonne managed and will conclude in June 2004.

“These student engineering competitions give the participants a major leg up when they enter the work force,” said Bob Larsen , director of the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne . “Challenge X builds on the success of these programs and raises the bar even higher.”

In year one, Challenge X will focus on modeling, simulation and testing of the powertrain and vehicle subsystems. In years two and three, students will integrate their advanced powertrain and subsystems into the Chevrolet Equinox. Competitions will be held at the end of each academic year to showcase the teams' learning and vehicle development.

Throughout the Challenge X competition, participating universities contribute funding, faculty release time, academic credit, and facilities for the students to develop and build their creations.

“Challenge X is a mechanism for demonstrating and expanding the progress that can be made when government, academia and the industry work together toward a common goal – sustainable mobility,” Stephens said. “The competition brings students and faculty into the real world of vehicle development and helps prepare a future generation of engineers so that they are better equipped to make a faster contribution to the engineering profession and the automotive industry.”

The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Evelyn Brown (630/252-5510 or eabrown@anl.gov) at Argonne.