From team member to team leader, Eric Schacht was fortunate enough to have participated in two Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions (AVTCs) at Ohio State. Both competitions offered Eric many practical applications of his electrical engineering studies, as well as hands-on experiences with leadership and responsibility. As team leader of the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge team, Eric led the team to success on one of the most advanced and complex vehicles ever built by the Ohio State team – he and his teammates finished second in the final year of the competition.
While Eric has graduated from Ohio State with both an undergraduate and master’s degree, he only moved a few miles down the road. For several years, Eric worked at CAR Technologies, which is very close to the OSU Center for Automotive Research. CAR Technologies works to develop and commercialize vehicle electrification technologies and services.
“I continue to look back on my experience in these two AVTCs as a huge boost to current job,” said Eric. “ChallengeX and EcoCAR were the best organizations I had the chance to participate in at Ohio State.”
Today, Eric works as a lead system engineer at Q2 power, a startup company that converts waster to heat or energy power. His role includes both mechanical and electrical design and troubleshooting, data acquisition, controls, and testing, fabrication, assembly, and mechanical design and analysis.
