NSF Sponsorship of Faculty Awards for Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions in 2003, 2004, and 2005

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This grant provides support for the FutureTruck Challenge. This competition is jointly sponsored by the NSF, the Department of Energy, Natural Resources Canada, the automotive industry including Ford and General Motors and suppliers such as Cisco Systems, ArvinMeritor, Delphi, and National Instruments. This is a continuation of a highly successful educational experience for undergraduate students at US and Canadian universities. The broader impacts are significant with teams competing in the application of environmentally benign design and manufacturing principles to reduce the energy and environmental impacts in the product life cycle of trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs). It has the goal of designing and competing commercially producible vehicles that are simultaneously comfortable, safe, road-reliable, commercially viable, and highly fuel efficient. Under this competition, a number of universities compete annually in this event. The award provides funding to support the competition and to offset costs for expenses such as team prizes, communication and safety equipment rentals and other competition expenses.