Georgia Institute of Technology has been named The EcoCAR Mobility Challenge Year Four champion, taking the lead in Year Four of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge. Rounding out the top three are Ohio State in second place and University of Alabama in third place.
This marks the culmination of the series, which challenged 11 North American universities to improve the energy efficiency of a 2019 Chevrolet Blazer while balancing emissions, safety and consumer acceptability factors. Over the four-year competition which began in 2018, each team transformed its vehicle from a design concept into a reality. By applying advanced propulsion systems, electrification, SAE Level 2 automation, and vehicle connectivity, the teams built energy efficient, connected, and semi-automated vehicles. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), General Motors (GM) and MathWorks, The EcoCAR Mobility Challenge celebrated winners in more than 40 categories. In total, more than $100,000 in prize money was awarded to the participating universities. For jumping to the top of the leaderboard Georgia Tech will take home an extra $10,000 to further support its advanced vehicle technology program.
Along with taking home first place, Georgia Tech earned 1st place in their Communications Program, 2nd place in Project Management, 1st place in Energy Consumption- both in Normal Driving Mode (NMD) and ACC Enabled, 1st place in the Connected Mobility Challenge, and 1st place Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) Systems Presentation. Notably, the team’s Engineering Manager, Nishan Nekoo, took home first place in the Excellence in Leadership Award.
What we have learned about this team during this series, is that they embody the spirit of the competition by collaborating with other teams throughout all four years of competition.
This team is a hub for team-to-team collaboration and nearly every EcoCAR other team could tell stories of how this team helped them out at some point during the competition. Georgia Tech produced a vehicle that excelled in all areas and were the only team to improve energy consumption over the stock Blazer, beating the other teams by a wide margin.
In all, Georgia Tech earned a total of 875.6 points out of 985.
Congratulations to Georgia Tech and ALL of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge participants on an outstanding year. You can view the full list of winners HERE!
