Vehicle Design Summit 1.0
On June 13, 2006 55 engineers from 13 countries convened at MIT with the near-term objective to build nd design five vehicles with a 300 MPGe baseline efficiency (where efficiency was calculated both as hermal and emissions tied equivalent). Using a proposed set of six unique propulsion systems, the roject was organized with the central goal of jump-starting the establishment of a permanent international design consortium focused on leapfrog technologies, developing a new mode for leadership training and project-based education, and creating a tangible product that would spark global interest in place-specific vehicle design. Team leaders from the world’s best super-mileage, human-powered, solarpowered and FSAE teams were accepted into the project, bringing incredible personal drive and expertise to VDS.
The planning period for this project ran from April 1st to June 13th, the day on which participants arrived, and ended with a final broadcast presentation on August 13th. The first week of design focused on research for the development of component technologies not available on the market but needed to enable a truly sustainable transportation fleet. These were hydrogen based propulsion systems, electric hub motor design, recyclable and non-toxic composite materials, energy storage technologies and human powered drive train development. This first endeavor enabled VDS Org to characterize each participants strengths while ensuring that all participant’s were well aware that a truly sustainable transportation fleet will require significant research into materials, systems and manufacturing. For the remaining seven weeks, vehicle teams were selected to build a human powered solar hybrid, a fuel cell – electric hybrid, vegetable oil combustion drive, and all electric grid tied inner-city commuter car. A team set to retrofit an existing architecture was cancelled after failing to meet internal milestones. Given that few participants had ever met before the launch date of VDS, the level of collaboration and teamwork demonstrated by all teams was extremely impressive.