Student engineers from over 21 universities around the world are currently gathered at a 9-week green transportation design summit at MIT to design and build between five and ten practical, alternative-powered commuter vehicles with 500-mpg equivalence.
Once built, the vehicles – which will use human power, biofuels, solar power, and fuel cells – will tour the U.S. to bring attention to issues surrounding green transportation.
The students participating in the MIT Vehicle Design Summit have all had previous experience with vehicle competitions, such as the World Solar Challenge, the European Shell Eco-Marathon, the American Solar Challenge, and others. At the conclusion of the summit, a technical manual will be published, and the findings distributed as Open Source.
From the release:
An added goal for the June 13-Aug. 13 program is to lay a foundation for ongoing multidisciplinary transportation research involving all five MIT schools. “We hope to create a project-based, socially conscious engineering curriculum for the ’06-’07 academic year,” said Anna S. Jaffe, a junior in civil and environmental engineering and one of the summit student organizers.
Green transportationThe summit also could set the stage for an international consortium focused on green transportation for India, China and other countries with rapidly expanding transportation infrastructures.
For more, see the complete release, a Vehicle Design Summit presentation, and the website for the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team.
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