The Ohio State University has been named The EcoCAR Mobility Challenge Year One champion, taking the lead in the premier four-year collegiate engineering competition. Rounding out the top three are Virginia Tech in second place and the University of Alabama in third place.

EcoCAR—the latest US Department of Energy Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition sponsored by General Motors and MathWorks—challenges 12 North American universities to apply advanced propulsion systems, electrification, SAE Level 2 automation and vehicle connectivity to improve the energy efficiency of a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer, all while balancing factors such as emissions, safety and consumer acceptability.

Teams have four years (2018-2022) to transform their vehicles from design concept into reality, building an energy efficient, connected and semi-automated vehicle for the car sharing market.

Year One is for the big thinkers. Throughout the year, the students strived to conceptualize and build the framework for their redesigned Chevrolet Blazers. There are no vehicles yet, so it’s up to the teams to engineer solutions from scratch, research user-interface components, powertrains and sensors to build around, as well as write and validate new code.

The Buckeye’s have taken the early lead in the competition earning 887 out of 1000 overall points. For jumping to the top of the leaderboard, Ohio State will take home an extra $10,000 to further support the university’s advanced vehicle technology program.

Additional sponsors joining the US Department of Energy, General Motors and MathWorks include NXP, National Science Foundation, Intel, American Axle & Manufacturing, Bosch, PACCAR, dSPACE, Siemens, Denso, Horiba, AVL, Delphi Technologies, California Air Resources Board, tesa tape, Vector, Electric Power Research Institute and Proterra.