MSU engineering students set for national Challenge X competition

June 3, 2005

June 2, 2005

Teams of engineering majors from Mississippi State and 16 other top North American universities will compete Sunday through Wednesday [June 5-8] in a national event that could significantly alter the future design of automobiles and other vehicles.

Students from the United States and Canada are re-engineering a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox, a crossover sport utility vehicle, in the first of a series of three Challenge X events to be held at General Motors University in Auburn Hills, Mich.

The 10-member MSU team, led by mechanical engineering graduate student David Oglesby of Columbus, has designed a diesel-electric hybrid vehicle for the initial competition.

“Going and participating in the Challenge X competition allows us to share our vehicle design concepts with industry experts and get their feedback,” said Oglesby. “It also allows us to compare our design with other top engineering schools.”

Marshall Molen, team adviser and a professor of electrical and computer engineering, said the event gives students hands-on design and engineering experience.

“Our students have worked hard this past year exploring vehicle solutions that will reduce energy consumption and decrease emissions,” said Molen, a power electronics research scientist at MSU’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems. “Now, our team must prepare to apply what they’ve designed on paper and in simulation programs to the actual vehicle.”

A year ago, the sponsoring U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors Corp. announced the 17 teams selected for the three-year project, “Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility.” The students spent their first year focusing on vehicle simulation and modeling, and subsystem development and testing.

During the upcoming four-day finale of the first year of competition, the teams will come together for a series of evaluations that include technical and vehicle design presentations. The event will culminate with an awards ceremony and vehicle donation ceremony June 9 at GM’s Milford Proving Ground, where teams will “earn their keys” to a new 2005 Equinox.

In the next two years of the Challenge X competition, students will integrate their advanced powertrains and subsystems into the vehicle. Additional competitions will be held at the end of the 2006 and 2007 academic years to showcase the teams’ progress and vehicle development from year to year.

According to sponsors, Challenge X demonstrates the cooperation of industry, government and academia in developing more energy-efficient and “greener” automotive technologies, improving the economy and environment, and keeping North America technically competitive on a global basis. The competition also helps develop hundreds of highly skilled engineers with a greater awareness of these technologies.

“The opportunity to network with General Motors is very exciting, as many of us begin soon to plan for employment in the workplace,” noted Oglesby, whose MSU team includes eight graduate students and two undergraduates representing a cross section of academic disciplines within the Bagley College of Engineering.

Participating teams receive grants and in-kind resources to help achieve their objectives, including substantial technical support and mentoring from GM and other sponsors. Each team also receives $10,000 in seed money and is eligible to collect up to $25,000 in additional production parts from GM, and considerable software and hardware donations from other sponsors.

The other 16 university Challenge X teams include Michigan Technological, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, San Diego State, Texas Tech, Akron, California-Davis, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas-Austin, Tulsa, Waterloo (Canada), Wisconsin-Madison, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.

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For more information about the MSU team, contact Amanda McAlpin, Justin Crapps or Dr. Molen.

LOCAL EDITORS: Members of MSU’s Challenge X team include:

David Oglesby of Columbus, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and the son of Kenneth and Joyce Oglesby.

Christopher Whitt of Lauderdale, a graduate student in mechanical engineering, and the son of Lee and Debi Whitt.

Kyle Crawford of Columbus, a graduate student in chemical engineering and the son of Sammy and Lucy Crawford.

Justin Crapps of Florence, Ala., a graduate student in mechanical engineering and the son of Donna Crapps.

Kennabec Walp of Tylertown, a graduate student in computer engineering and the son of Ken and the late Ann Walp.

Amanda McAlpin of Mathiston, a graduate student in marketing and the daughter of Danny and Ruth McAlpin.

Sophomore Terri Christian of Mathiston, a geosciences major and the daughter of Mark and Teresa Ford, and Floyd Leggett.

Brian Christian of Slidell, La., a senior mechanical engineering major and the son of Terry and Sandy Christian.

Ron Lewis of Heidelberg, a graduate student in computer engineering and the son of Robert and Mary Lewis.

Jimmy Matthews of Starkville and Bombay, India, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering, and the son of Cherian and Rachel Matthews.