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SAE Announces New International Student Design Competition

4 March 1999

SAE Announces New International Student Design Competition

    DETROIT, March 4 -- The Society of Automotive Engineers today
announced a new international student design competition that will deal with
serious environmental and technical concerns that face the automotive industry
throughout the world.
    "ECOCAR 2000: A Global Partnership to Advance Automotive Technology" will
debut at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Michigan, from
June 21-27, 2000.  The competition will bring together advanced
high-efficiency, low-emission vehicles built by teams of student engineers
from all over the world in an historic series of biennial competitions.
    "ECOCAR 2000 is the best way I know to bring the world's greatest young
minds in our engineering schools together to develop technologies that address
problems of environmental responsibility and sustainable development," said
David C. Holloway, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland
and SAE Past President.  "It also fosters improved relationships between the
auto industry, technical societies, and the source of its future engineering
talent."
    Student engineers from around the world will modify production vehicles
that consume the most energy in their home countries and then participate in
seven days of intense competition.  The competition will rotate between
Europe, Asia and North America every other year.
    The competition will be organized and administered by SAE International
with support from the Society of Automotive Engineers in Japan (JSAE), the
institution of Mechanical Engineers in the United Kingdom (ImechE), and with
special patronage from the International Federation of Automotive Engineering
Societies (FISITA).
    Any recognized college or university-level science or engineering school
is eligible to compete in EcoCar.  U.S. schools that finish as one of the top
three in the FutureCar 2000 competition organized by the Department of Energy
will automatically qualify.  U.S. schools not participating in FutureCar 2000
and non-U.S. schools can participate by obtaining sponsors in their own
country.
    Sponsors are important participants because they provide resources that
help make the competition possible.  They also select and interact with the
schools, guiding the design and construction of their competition vehicle.
    SAE, through its Vision 2000 program, currently sponsors eight student
design competitions throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico every year.

    SAE is a non-profit educational and scientific organization dedicated to
the advancement of mobility technology to better serve humanity.  More than
70,000 engineers and scientists who are SAE members develop technical
information on all forms of self-propelled vehicles including automobiles,
trucks and buses, off-highway equipment, aircraft, aerospace vehicles, marine,
rail and transit systems.  SAE disseminates this information through its
meetings, books, technical papers, magazines, standards, reports, continuing
education programs and electronic databases.