Straight from zero to 60 mph in a blink of an eye, the student-led Challenge X team zoomed past its competition powered by a modified diesel engine.
For the second year, the Mississippi State University Challenge X team received top recognition for its progress in hybrid technology.
Now the team is preparing for the EcoCAR challenge.
The EcoCAR: The Next Challenge will be a three-year competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and others.
Mechanical engineering graduate student Matthew Doude said the team’s success surprised everyone at first.
“During the second year we saw that we can really compete with the top schools,” he said.
Doude has been involved with the Challenge X project for about four years and has been a team leader for a year.
“I like working on cars; I always have,” he said. “I saw the exposure the team was getting and I thought that was something I would like to be a part of.”
Doude said with averages of+ about 44 miles per gallon for a diesel engine.
“I don’t know of another vehicle in the world that gets this combination of fuel economy with performance in a SUV,” he said.
Senior mechanical engineering major Michael Barr said his experiences in the past two years of the competition helped motivated him to rejoin the Challenge X team.
“I enjoyed the last two years, so I decided to continue with the new competition,” he said.
Junior mechanical engineering major Jenna Grantham said she was not aware of how hybrids worked when she first became involved in the program.
“The hardest part was learning about the architecture and how everything was implemented,” she said. “It definitely gave me more insight on how the automotive industry works. I definitely wanted to pursue an automotive career.”
Grantham said she expects the next competition to be more personally challenging than the previous one.
“I was a supporting member for Challenge X,” she said. “For EcoCAR I will have more of a leading role because I have simulation work experience.”
Grantham received the Rookie Women in Engineering Award at the competition.
Senior mechanical engineering major Philip Cranford said he became interested in the Challenge X project because of the hands-on experience with automobiles.
“It is preparing all the participants for work in the automotive industry,” he said. “When I graduate college, I will have a leg-up on most people because I have practical experience in this field.”
Though Cranford has only been involved with the project for a year, he said the Challenge X competition has been one of his most fulfilling experiences.
“Through my experience with Challenge X, I have been able to meet people, visit places and do things that I would not ordinarily be able to do with other campus organizations,” he said.
“I have been able to go to Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.”
Doude said for a project like this, one person cannot do everything.
“We had several students on the team that have graduated who played a huge role in our success,” he said.
He said in one sense it was nice to have won the previous competition.
“At first there were some schools who looked down on the group from Mississippi, but now when we show up we are the leaders,” he said.
“It also makes it hard because we are the ones everyone is gunning for.”
Despite the opposition the team faces, Doude said the team is going to do its best to win again.
“I expect for us to compete no matter what and continue to represent the Mississippi State University engineering program well,” he said.
A student does not have to be an engineering major to be a part of this, Doude said.
“We use business, communication and marketing majors,” he said. “We have a need for any student who has a passion for cars or just a good work ethic.”