Challenge X Competition

[ Challenge X Group Shot ]

Crossover to sustainable mobility

Background
The North American vehicle market has come to a crossroads. Today's consumers are demanding larger, more capable, and more powerful vehicles. At the same time people are becoming more aware of the negative impact that many of these vehicles are having on our environment and our energy supply. It is because of this that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has sponsored more than two dozen competitions since 1987 to challenge thousands of students to overcome this problem by designing vehicles that meet the modern consumers' requirements while improving fuel economy, emissions, and safety.

Challenge X
General Motors Corporation (GM), DOE, and other government and industry leaders have developed a competition that goes well beyond what any other competition has tried to achieve with Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility . Challenge X is different from other competitions because GM is offering students unprecedented access to the world of vehicle design. Students will take a Real World approach following the vehicle design process used in industry to achieve Real Results.

The competition involves teams from 17 accredited engineering schools from across North America. Starting in the spring of 2004, the competition runs for three years and focuses around the re-engineering of a GM crossover sport utility vehicle. Students will work with the original GM vehicle platform and integrate new advanced drive-train systems involving alternative fuels such as hydrogen, ethanol, and biodiesel. The vehicles will maintain performance and minimize environmental impact through the cutting of emissions and efficient use of energy.

Part of the judging criteria will be how well each team works to promote Challenge X, the automotive field, engineering and alternative fuels. An integral partner in this outreach is GMability which encourages students to learn these topics.

Competition Details
The first year of the competition focuses on the vehicle design. Students will be using the same software that GM uses to model and simulate various drive-train systems, eventually settling on their own vehicle design. Students will be required to do extensive simulation and testing to find the best design for integrating their power-train and vehicle sub-systems. Once the teams have successfully completed the vehicle design process, at the end of year one, they receive the crossover sport utility vehicle.

Years two and three are all about turning the design into reality. The teams will work to implement their vehicle designs to create some of the most efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly vehicles ever. Students must be creative and innovative to overcome challenges faced by the use of alternative fuels. The competition promises to uncover exciting new technologies to further the world of automotive design and help us Crossover to Sustainable Mobility.