Written by: Daniel Peláez
The Georgia Tech EcoCAR team is comprised of 60 dedicated student leaders that come from diverse backgrounds and a variety of academic interests. The group comes together with the common goal of learning and developing solutions for the future of energy and the automotive industry. The Georgia Tech team has worked hard throughout the competition and is incredibly grateful for the contributions of the competition sponsors. In the fourth and final year of this exhilarating challenge, the Georgia Tech team was given the privilege of collaborating with dSPACE to facilitate an exciting and informative webinar.
dSPACE, Inc. is a proud leadership-level sponsor of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge. dSPACE has sponsored advanced vehicle technology competitions (AVTCs) since the mid-2000s and has sponsored the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge since it began in 2018. dSPACE is a principal worldwide provider of simulation and validation solutions for creating connected, autonomous, and electrically powered vehicles. As a sponsor, dSPACE donates the MicroAutoBox II and a dSPACE Mid-Size HIL Simulator to each team while providing technical support throughout the competition.
From the beginning of February until the execution of the webinar in March, the Georgia Tech team’s communications managers met weekly, and maintained consistent communication, with Alicia Garrison, Marketing & Communications Manager at dSPACE, and Chris Manning, Business Development and Project Manager for Autonomous Driving and Software Engineering.
“Working with the Georgia Tech EcoCAR team throughout this competition has been great!” said Chris Manning. “The collaboration really allows student team members to get access to industry-standard tools for controls development, simulation, and validation, and dSPACE gets to work with the next generation of automotive engineers.”
The Technologies for Future Mobility webinar was hosted at noon on Thursday, March 17, via Zoom. The team began promoting the webinar in late February, primarily through social media and Slack channels. The hour-long event was open to Georgia Tech students and all university students through the support of dSPACE connections. A total of 53 users joined the call with 45 users remaining active throughout the duration of the event.
The webinar started with Georgia Tech’s engineering manager, Nishan Nekoo, and Propulsion Controls and Modeling (PCM) lead, Braeden Dickson, providing an overview of the EcoCAR challenge, introducing the team and how dSPACE contributes to the team. After their 15-minute presentation, dSPACE’s Chris Manning and Ian O’Bryan presented about the dSPACE company portfolio, academic programs, trends in e-mobility, trends in advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving, and real-world applications and scenarios. The presenters walked the audience through valuable information, providing a detailed, concise and captivating delivery.
The presentation was followed with engaging questions from audience members. Attendees were curious about how to get involved with AVTCs and the Georgia Tech team. Questions were covered in the remaining time and those who required further discussion were addressed via email.
“For the past five years, I have loved how dSPACE tools are powerful, intuitive, and efficient to use,” Nishan Nekoo shared after presenting at the webinar. “They are such an important sponsor of the EcoCAR competition and have made the work I do on the team that much easier. I have worked closely with Chris Manning in the past, and this webinar was such an exciting opportunity to discuss the future of mobility together!”
The Georgia Tech team is extremely grateful for all the supplemental support offered by sponsors such as dSPACE.
