TERRE HAUTE — The race for transportation supplied by alternative energy is on, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students are at the starting line with the best engineers in America.

Art Western, vice president of academic affairs and dean of faculty, credited the EcoCAR project to the “unique coalition” of partners represented at a Wednesday afternoon open house in the school’s Advanced Transportation Development Facility south of town on Indiana 46.

The school has been awarded $3 million toward its competition in EcoCAR, a three-year contest where students take a General Motors production vehicle and completely re-engineer it into a hybrid-electric model. Only 17 universities were invited to compete in the project, and Rose-Hulman is the only school from Indiana, Western noted.

In addition to the U.S. Department of Energy and General Motors, groups ranging from Duke Energy, EnerDel, the Alcoa Foundation and On Semiconductor are also cheering from the grandstands of what executives there described as a race for the future of U.S. energy usage.

EcoCAR is one of several projects launched from the school’s Advanced Transportation Systems program, including the Rose-Hulman Human Powered Vehicle, a two-time national champion in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers HPV competitions.

Rick Stanley, a 1978 Rose-Hulman graduate and president of EnerDel, was in attendance Wednesday with a 600-pound lithium-ion battery on display. The battery, he said, is headed off to Norway for use in an electric commuter car. The Indianapolis-based lithium-ion battery maker will provide the battery system for Rose-Hulman’s EcoCAR team.

The “invaluable experience” of competing on a GM project such as this will make participating students a high prize upon graduation, he said, adding that his company plans to use its own involvement as a recruiting endeavor. EnerDel currently has two manufacturing facilities in Indiana employing 200 workers. By 2015, he estimates the company will employ a total of 1,400 Hoosiers in three plants.

“… there is a growing global focus on reducing dependence on oil and reducing emissions. The Advanced Transportation Systems program and projects like EcoCAR provide incredibly relevant experience for Rose-Hulman students,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mike Rowand, Duke Energy’s director of Advanced Customer Technology, said his organization’s interest in the project is more than just “selling more electricity.” Duke Energy has committed to donating $25,000 per year for three years to the project.

A noted author and speaker on “smart grid” technology, Rowand explained that learning to store energy is the “ultimate prize” for industry. Under the existing grid system, electricity is ordered, generated and delivered with the flip of a homeowner’s light switch, he said, noting the need for power plants to be in constant use. The idea of “warehousing” electricity has never been advanced to realization, but the details required to operate an electric vehicle mark the path toward that ability.

“This is a microcosm of what we need to do going forward,” he said, referring to the “electrification platform” of learning and technology. The process involved in learning to engineer the parts of electrical systems will lead to other advancements in the area of hydro and even nuclear power, he predicted.

Rose-Hulman students participating in the competition have spent the past year designing the machine they will now begin to build. The team received its stock vehicle in November. The end result is expected to feature a diesel engine using B-20 diesel fuel and two electric motors arranged in a parallel pre-post transmission architecture.

Zack Brune, a senior mechanical engineering student from the Fort Wayne area, said he first got involved in the EcoCAR project during the spring semester’s design segment. Now that construction is ready to begin, the future automotive industry engineer said he’s excited to get to work.

“It very well could be,” he said of electricity being the possible solution to America’s automotive energy needs.

Bruce Kopf, a 1964 Rose-Hulman alumnus who spent the last decade of a 32-year career at Ford Motor Co. said there’s no doubt about it. Kopf’s work included Ford’s Focus fuel cell as well as the Escape Hybrid.

“This is where the future is,” he said.



Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.