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Billy Bland, mechanical team, Chris Lucier, team leader, Chris Twarog, GM mentor, and Jake Dunda, controls team, all wonder where the “hybrid do-hickey thing goes”
For this week’s Mentor Monday post, we’re featuring Chris Twarog, a General Motors (GM) controls integration engineer based out of the company’s Milford, Michigan proving grounds. For many years, GM has been a major sponsor for Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) alongside the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Chris started mentoring during the Challenge X competition when a colleague asked him to temporarily fill in as a mentor for Penn State University.
“I had a great experience working with the Penn State team and I wanted to stay involved in future competitions. GM placed me as a Michigan Tech mentor for Challenge X in the fall of 2007, and I’ve stayed with the team for EcoCAR,” said Chris. “My role is to keep the students on track to meet their goals and deadlines. I help them with project management and show them the way we track project goals, timing and metrics at GM. They then can apply this information to their project deadlines and carry the skills with them in their future careers.”
“I also help the students integrate GM controllers and components into their vehicle. As a controls integration engineer, I am really focused on vehicle integration, rather than integration at a component or sub-system level, and so are the EcoCAR students. It’s a great technical fit.”
Right now, the Michigan Tech team is hard at work installing and making their hybrid system work with the rest of the vehicle.
Prior to his current position, Chris was in the Concept and Vehicle Integration Group at GM working on concept cars that are shown at auto shows. “I worked on the electrical system for the Chevy Volt and Camaro concepts,” said Chris. “It was fun to engineer new cars that are well received and have the latest advanced technologies.”
Outside of GM and EcoCAR, Chris plays hockey and co-ed softball, enjoys dirt biking, and spending time with friends. He also tinkers on cars in his own garage and is doing his best to help plan for his upcoming wedding in July.
Earlier this month, the UVic EcoCAR team invited the Science Venture Girls Club to visit their shop to learn about the importance of advanced vehicle technologies. This was a special visit because there was one thing that was visibly missing—boys. For the first time in the UVic shop, females outnumbered males with a ratio of 16:1.
Engineering is a field historically dominated by males, making it easy for young females to form assumptions that they are not cut out for engineering related positions. To break through that barrier, the female UVic team members spent the afternoon with the Science Venture girls talking about different engineering roles and showcasing their EcoCAR work. The conversation started out by exploring the issue of climate change and the need for sustainable technologies and filtered down to what is being done today with advanced vehicle technologies to help alleviate the pressures human activity is placing on the environment.
The Science Venture girls were given the opportunity to come up with their own innovative vehicle solutions and draw a green vehicle of the future. They came up with an impressive range of creative ideas from magnet-powered vehicles to using waste as fuel. The UVic team then showed the girls what they are doing to their GM-donated vehicle to transform it into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and discussed what alternative fuel sources are becoming more widely available today.
The UVic team believes that educating today’s youth on the importance of engineering careers and sustainable practices is an essential step in ensuring a greener planet and will continue to do so throughout the EcoCAR competition.
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- Checking out the UVic vehicle design and how the PHEV differs from an ordinary vehicle
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- Using solar cars to demonstrate alternative energy sources
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- Looking under the hood– UVic’s team leader couldn’t help joining in on the fun!
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- Bright minds at work designing the green vehicles of the future
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- The UVic girls and the Science Venture girls talking engineering!
The WVU EcoCAR team recently received support from a local public official at one of its K-12 outreach events. Team members Cate Mihelic, Marilyn McCarthy and Andrew Blazek were invited to give a presentation on the EcoCAR Challenge to 120 fifth and sixth-grade students at East Park Elementary School in Fairmont, West Virginia.
The WVU team was very excited to have the support of Fairmont City Manager, Jay Rogers, at the event. Mr. Rogers was happy to learn about West Virginia University’s involvement in the EcoCAR competition and thanked the team for talking about their project to the students of Fairmont.
“We talked to the students about how important it is to study math and science and the hands-on learning opportunities that the EcoCAR Challenge gives college students,” said Mihelic, a WVU outreach team member. “ The event was also special because Mr. Rogers was really interested in our message and offered us his support as we progress through the competition.”
WVU team members have been participating in various K-12 outreach events around the state of West Virginia to educate young people about the opportunities they have to work towards a greener future.
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- The WVU EcoCAR team talking to East Park Elementary students about the importance of math and science
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- The WVU team telling the students about their participation in the EcoCAR Challenge
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- WVU students posing with Fairmont City Manager, Jay Rogers
To celebrate National Engineers Week, President Obama sent a greeting to the nation’s engineers saying that “never has it been more important for America’s youth to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and math.” We couldn’t agree more!
To help the youth learn about career opportunities in science and engineering, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has invited Chicago-area girls in sixth through eighth grade to participate in the annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day!
Teen girls learning what it's like to be an engineer at Argonne National Laboratory in 2009
“This event is a great opportunity to inspire our next generation of scientists and engineers,” said Erika Benda, chairperson of the event and an Argonne mechanical engineer. “The event is designed to spark their curiosity and encourage girls to pursue their interests in science and engineering.”
The event is a fun and educational way to introduce girls to engineering. The students will spend the day with a mentor, tour the laboratory, participate in hands-on activities and attend interactive presentations about engineering careers. They will also have lunch with some of Argonne’s leading experts and have the opportunity to ask questions about their work, education and how they decided to enter their chosen fields.
How are you celebrating National Engineers Week?
For more than 21 years, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has sponsored more than 45 Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTC) that have engaged more than 15,000 students from 85 different colleges and universities. While some of the technical goals and execution have changed over the years, the competitions have had a common theme – to accelerate the development and demonstration of technologies of interest to the DOE and the automotive industry, to help prepare the market to accept advanced vehicle technologies, and to seed the automotive industry with a new generation of engineering graduates that have hands-on, real-world experience that better prepares them for the energy and transportation-related challenges of the 21st century.
General Motors has been a major sponsor for many of these competitions alongside the DOE and has experienced firsthand the tremendous value that competition-trained engineers can bring to the professional world. In recent years, GM has hired more than 50 graduates from these competitions and the talent and experience they have brought to the company has been extremely beneficial throughout the organization.
Watch this video to see the story of just a few of the talented engineers who are AVTC alumni now working for General Motors: Shannon Reeves, Daniel Mehr, Mike Arnett and Cindy Svestka.
This week, we are featuring two more mentors from EcoCAR’s platinum sponsor, dSPACE. If you remember from last week, dSPACE is providing Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) support to 8 of the 17 EcoCAR teams.
Jim Hollowell working with EcoCAR students
Jim Hollowell is a senior applications engineer for dSPACE responsible for providing design, testing and customer support services for HIL systems. Jim is serving as a mentor to the Mississippi State University team during the EcoCAR competition.
“It’s a wonderful learning experience, for both the students and me. The future of the industry looks bright. Great young minds, with wonderful enthusiasm and new ideas.”
Tobias Eifler teaching EcoCAR students about HIL implementation
Tobias Eifler is a senior applications engineer for dSPACE responsible for the implementation of automotive simulation models on HIL systems. Since the kick-off of the EcoCAR Challenge in the fall of 2008, Tobias has been serving as a mentor to the University of Waterloo.
“I am training students on rapid prototyping and Hardware-in-the-Loop model-based implementation utilizing dSPACE hardware and software. The tools and technologies that the EcoCAR teams are using are very sophisticated. The students were faced with a steep learning curve and it is very satisfying and encouraging to see the fast progress they are making. It’s an honor for me to be able to play a role in educating the engineers of tomorrow. I am from Germany, but temporarily working in the dSPACE U.S. office, so the events associated with the EcoCAR competition have made it possible for me to see some extraordinary and exciting places in North America. It’s been a great experience!”
Earlier this month, Dr. John Sheffield, the Missouri S&T EcoCAR faculty advisor and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, gave a presentation to the Rolla Rotary Club. Dr. Sheffield discussed the team’s participation in the EcoCAR competition, the future of the automobile industry and hydrogen fuel-cell technology.
Listen to his presentation below!
Last month, the OSU EcoCAR team attended the 2009 SAE Powertrains, Fuels and Lubes meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
At the event, six EcoCAR students gave a presentation called, “Tomorrow’s Vehicles by Tomorrow’s Engineers: Design, Simulation, and HIL Results from Year 1 of the EcoCAR Challenge.” The students discussed the lessons they learned in Year 1 of the competition, including the rapid development of hybrid architectures and the implementation of hardware-in-the-loop simulation.
Brad Cooley and John Kruckenberg represented Ohio State at the meeting and students from Embry-Riddle, Georgia Tech and the University of Waterloo also participated.
The OSU team was thrilled to be given the opportunity to attend the meeting and interact with industry experts. For more information about the students’ presentation and the other sessions at the SAE Powertrains, Fuels and Lubes meeting, click here!
UW's EcoCAR in the school's homecoming parade
The hybrid team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been operating in high gear since the arrival of its EcoCAR project vehicle on October 8th. The team’s GM-donated vehicle will be the basis for its engineering efforts to further advance vehicle technology. Reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, without compromising vehicle performance, is the goal..
The hybrid team is putting the EcoCAR to good use around the Madison area, promoting the use of personal transportation with minimal environmental impact. The team was recently featured in a local news broadcast that described the goals of the EcoCAR Challenge and the work being done to support a sustainable transportation future. The team also showed off the new vehicle at UW’s Homecoming Parade, with a big EcoCAR banner and free water bottles for the crowd
The UW EcoCAR team is now coming up with more ways to expand its outreach program by posting updates on Facebook and Twitter. There is plenty of work to do and the team is excited about getting the wrenches turning as they begin modifying the EcoCAR in search of ways to improve efficiency and reduce emissions.
The Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference (OTEC) is a two-day conference attended by over 2,400 people from across the United States who are interested in Ohio’s transportation industry. OTEC is co-sponsored by the Ohio Department of Transportation and The Ohio State University. The program addresses the latest policies and technical information, as well as new ideas in transportation policies, planning, design, construction, maintenance, operation, local government, and management of transportation resources.
The Ohio State EcoCAR team attended the conference and was introduced at the opening ceremony. Civil engineers and public officials stopped by the team’s booth to discuss the project and learn more about what Ohio State is doing to contribute to the state and nation’s future. The team explained what the EcoCAR Challenge was all about and the Challenge X vehicle was on display to give attendees a visual (Challenge X was the Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition prior to EcoCAR that the OSU team participated in). OTEC offered technical and informational sessions to the members of The Ohio State EcoCAR team – it was a great opportunity!
The team received praise for its involvement in the EcoCAR Challenge and is looking forward to going back to the conference next year.
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- Challenge X vehicle displayed at the Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference
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- Ohio State’s booth at the Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference
