Dean Cilento Checks Out Challenge X

Challenge X team members showed Dean Cilento some features of the vehicle they re-engineered before taking him for a drive in it.

On April 25, Dean Gene Cilento took got a ride in a sport utility vehicle that a team of students are converting into a low-emissions hybrid.

The students are part of Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility, a competition sponsored by the automotive industry, government and academic partners. WVU is one of only 17 universities competing.

"The goal of the competition is to challenge students to decrease emissions and energy consumption in a crossover vehicle, while maintaining or exceeding vehicle utility and performance," said Scott Wayne, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the team’s advisor.

"We started with a stock sport utility vehicle, and have converted it into a hybrid that runs on biodiesel and electricity," said Christopher Gee, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major and the team’s captain.

These WVU students have been at work on this vehicle for three full years, and have placed in the top ten in the previous two years of the competition. Team and vehicle will travel to the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, Michigan, on May 30 for the third round.

The first year, Gee explained, was focused on preparing the vehicle’s paper design and technical reports. In the second year, team members implemented their design and worked out solutions to problems that cropped up. This year, the goal has been to get the vehicle to the stage where it is close to ready for production. Next year will be the fourth and final year of the competition.

"Challenge X has been a very rewarding experience," said Gee. "It is very satisfying to go through the whole process, from design to implementation."

The U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors are the headline sponsors for the Challenge X competition; Argonne National Laboratory, a Department of Energy R&D facility, is providing competition management, team evaluation and technical and logistical support. More than 30 industry sponsors 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.

For more information about Challenge X, please contact Lindsay Boyd, Outreach Coordinator, at (540) 577-1819.

04/27/2007