A race car competition,Formula Hybrid, has won this year’s coveted engineering education prize, the ABET Innovation Award
The race car design competition was launched by Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering and challenges undergraduate and graduate engineering students across disciplines to collaboratively design and construct a fuel-efficient hybrid or an electric-only vehicle.
The vehicles must be a formula-style hybrid or electric-only car. The competition is designed to emphasize drivetrain innovation and fuel efficiency in a high-performance application.
Students work throughout the year to plan, design and build their cars. They then play off against other competitors during the four-day competition each May at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Since the competition began over 3,500 students from 80 institutions have entered. The idea is to allow students to collaborate across disciplines. Students from computer science to mechanical and electrical engineering work together to demonstrate their creativity and engineering skills.
Chair of the ABET Innovation Award Subcommittee, Steven Cramer, explained that the Competition won this year’s ABET Innovation Award “because of its broad and sustained impact in innovative energy-efficient design experiences that enhance the 21stcentury skills of students in ABET-accredited programs”.
