Student Summit Set on Vehicle Design

Student Summit Set on Vehicle Design
Seventy-three students from 21 universities around the world will gather at MIT this summer to design and build between five and 10 commuter vehicles that exploit human power, biofuels, solar technologies and fuel cells to travel at least 500 miles per gallon of fuel.

By the end of the MIT Vehicle Design Summit, the cars created by the students, who have previously designed solar racecars for the World Solar Challenge (WSC) and super-mileage vehicles for the European Shell Eco-Marathon, will tour the country to bring attention to the social and technological issues surrounding alternative-powered vehicles.

An added goal for the June 13-Aug. 13 program is to lay a foundation for ongoing multidisciplinary transportation research involving all five MIT schools.

"We hope to create a project-based, socially conscious engineering curriculum for the '06-'07 academic year," said Anna S. Jaffe, a junior in civil and environmental engineering and one of the summit student organizers.

The summit also could set the stage for an international consortium focused on green transportation for India, China and other countries with rapidly expanding transportation infrastructures.

The students will work with industry and academia speakers and mentors to create the vehicles.