EcoCAR 3: Advancing STEM Education, Innovation, Diversity and Outreach through Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions

美国能源部先进车辆技术竞赛（AVTC）项目每年为数千名学生提供解决我国能源和交通挑战的机会。最新的AVTC系列，EcoCAR 3，要求16所大学重新设计雪佛兰卡玛洛，以减少其对环境的影响，同时保持这款标志性美国汽车的预期性能。在为期四年的项目中，EcoCAR 3团队将遵循现实世界的车辆开发过程，这将作为设计、建造和改进先进技术车辆的工程过程的路线图。独特的现实世界的工程经验，为学生工程师提供动手研究和开发与领先的汽车推进，燃料，材料和排放控制技术。该竞赛由美国能源部、通用汽车公司和其他二十多家政府和行业领导者赞助，不仅培养了顶尖的工程人才，而且还加速了创新、先进汽车技术的开发和示范，这些技术有助于减少我国对外国石油的依赖，使我们在全球具有竞争力。这笔NSF拨款将支持EcoCAR 3竞赛的四个领域：NSF杰出教师顾问奖、NSF工程多样性奖、NSF创新计划拨款和奖励，以及现场竞赛费用。NSF杰出教师顾问奖表彰那些成功地将EcoCAR的目标、目的和活动整合到工程课程中，并将成功的汽车工程设计过程融入其大学工程课程的杰出EcoCAR教师顾问。美国国家科学基金会工程多样性奖旨在表彰那些针对女性和代表性不足的少数民族成功开展招聘活动、展示包容文化和/或建立积极网络的团队，这些团队将吸引不同群体的团队成员。美国国家科学基金会创新计划的拨款和奖励将在新兴领域，如能源效率、车辆性能、消费者接受度或排放方面，支持和认可创新研究和开发活动的成就。对竞赛费用的支持将有助于举办一年一度的面对面的EcoCAR 3竞赛，在每个学年结束时，为学生设计的先进技术车辆提供公开演示和评估的机会。

The DOE Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) program provides opportunity to thousands of students annually to solve our nation's energy and transportation challenges. The latest AVTC series, EcoCAR 3, tasks 16 universities to re-engineer a Chevrolet Camaro to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining the performance expected from this iconic American car. During the four-year program, EcoCAR 3 teams will follow a real-world Vehicle Development Process that will serve as a roadmap for the engineering process of designing, building and refining their advanced technology vehicles. The unique real-world engineering experience provides student engineers with hands-on research and development with leading-edge automotive propulsion, fuels, materials and emission-control technologies. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and more than two dozen other government and industry leaders, the competition not only produces top engineering talent, but also accelerates the development and demonstration of innovative, advanced vehicle technologies that help reduceour nation's dependence on foreign oil and enable us to be competitive globally. This NSF grant will support four areas of the EcoCAR 3 competition: the NSF Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award, the NSF Diversity in Engineering Awards, the NSF Innovation Initiative grants and awards, and on-site competition expenses. The NSF Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award recognizes outstanding EcoCAR Faculty Advisors who have successfully integrated EcoCAR goals, objectives and activities into the engineering curriculum and fostered a successful automotive engineering design process into their university engineering programs. The NSF Diversity in Engineering Awards recognize teams who develop successful recruiting initiatives directed toward women and underrepresented minorities, demonstrate a culture of inclusion, and/or establish a positive network that will, in turn, attract a diverse group of team members. The NSF Innovation Initiative grants and awards will enable and recognize achievement in innovative research and development activities in emerging areas such as energy efficiency, vehicle performance, consumer acceptability or emissions. Support for the competition expenses will help to enable the annual face-to-face EcoCAR 3 competition that provides the opportunity for the public demonstration and evaluation of the student-designed advanced technology vehicles at the conclusion of each of the three academic years of the EcoCAR 3 program.