About AVTC

What are AVTCs?

Established in 1988 by the U.S. Department of Energy and Argonne National Laboratory in partnership with North America’s automotive industry, Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTCs) are a series of multi-year automotive engineering competitions and DOE’s flagship workforce development program for future automotive engineers and industry leaders.

AVTCs engage students from middle school through higher education, creating a pipeline that both encourages students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and has seeded more than 30,000 graduates into industry, helping to build the diverse workforce needed for the U.S. to be competitive in the global marketplace.

Mission, Vision & Goals

AVTC’s Mission

AVTCs harness the knowledge and resources of government and industry with the brightest minds in academia to empower the next generation of engineers and business leaders to develop solutions to our nation’s toughest transportation challenges, while providing students with an unparalleled and immersive educational experience and real-world training ground that transforms the traditional classroom into a hub of automotive innovation. AVTCs seed the industry with a highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce that will shape future energy-efficient automotive products and achieve DOE’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

AVTC’s Vision

To transform STEM education and training to accelerate and deploy a skilled and diverse workforce better prepared to advance our nation toward electrification, decarbonization and other climate change actions, enabling the U.S. to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

AVTC Core Values

Create an immersive and un-paralleled educational experience for students centered around experiential learning that transforms the traditional classroom into an automotive hub of innovation.

Establish a multidisciplinary team environment that mimics an automotive start up and draws upon disciplines beyond engineering.

Provide a real-world training ground for future engineering leaders, exposing them to industry tools, components, processes, best practice and standards and challenges them to solve complex challenges and achieve industry-standard milestones and vehicle specifications.

Implement a national STEM and community outreach program to attract youth into STEM careers, build awareness within underserved communities and broaden opportunities for underrepresented minorities to participate in AVTCs and future mobility careers.

Design and implement purpose-built education, training and experiential learning that better prepares students for future careers in mobility.

Build a skilled workforce that reflects the diversity of North America that is better prepared to advance our nation toward electrification, decarbonization and other climate change actions, enabling the U.S. to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Equal Opportunities

AVTCs aim to redress inequities that serve as a barrier to equal opportunities within the competition. Advancing equity requires an approach to embedding fairness in the decision-making processes. By advancing equity, we can create opportunities and encourage the participation of underserved communities and underrepresented groups, which benefits everyone.

Participating teams recruit and retain students that represent the diversity of automotive customers and promote an environment of inclusion and diversity within the program and among the students.

AVTCs implement a community outreach program to attract youth into STEM careers, build awareness within underserved communities and broaden opportunities for underrepresented minorities to participate in AVTCs and future mobility careers.