My sister, my role model, my friend. As youngsters we squabbled; as teens we shared clothes and accessories; and as adults we obsess over our daschund puppy back home with our parents. However, there is something my older sister taught me that gave me a new outlook on life and the future of our world: environmental sustainability.

I respect my sister because she does anything she possibly can to preserve the environment. She reads numerous books on sustainability and “living green,” and tells family and friends about how they, too, can help. At every family holiday she gathers glass bottles, cans and plastic containers and takes them to her home in State College to recycle them. She and her husband buy organic produce which helps to lessen the amount of pesticides that are used, which end up in the water supply. They use reusable shopping bags instead of plastic, compost kitchen and garden wastes, drink from reusable aluminum bottles instead of plastic disposable ones and carry fabric lunch bags instead of paper or plastic. They also reduced their junk mail to decrease logging and paper waste (The average adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail each year. Check out www.41pounds.org).

The most profound steps my sister and her husband have taken together include building an Energy-Star home to diminish energy usage and donating money to a non-profit organization that plants trees and rebuilds rainforests to offset all the carbon dioxide that their wedding generated in August 2008.

So what does all of this have to do with my position on the Outreach team of EcoCAR? It shows my inspiration, my drive, for working for such a worthwhile competition. My sister has taught me the importance of caring for our planet earth. She inspired me to take as many actions as possible to preserve the environment. This is what motivated me to join EcoCAR. Now, I feel honored to be a part of a team that is spending three years designing and building a hybrid car to decrease emissions and increase gas mileage. I feel encouraged, motivated and inspired by each and every person on the team. It is extremely gratifying to be a part of EcoCAR, and I know I make my sister proud each and every day.

Although I’ve only been a part of the team for a few weeks, I’ve already learned a lot. Yes, I’ve gained experience in the world of Public Relations, but it goes way beyond just my communication and media skills. It feels great to be involved in something that not only gives me an understanding of an entirely new world of technical terms, but that works towards making a positive change for our environment.

Actually seeing firsthand how many people are involved in EcoCAR and just how much work goes into the project shows that every person really can make a difference. Each student that works on the project is gaining experience that has the potential to shape the future of the car industry as we know it. That’s an extremely wonderful thing to be a part of! So please remember, even if you don’t have the innovative skills of an EcoCAR student engineer, there are still other ways to jump on the EcoCAR bandwagon. Look out for upcoming outreach events for EcoCAR at Penn State and in the community.

For the Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team, this past week has felt like Christmas! On September 29th, the team finally received their new vehicle from GM. But not only that, they received their ETS and Snap-On Tools set all in one day. The excitement couldn’t have been higher.

The team decided to hold a public debut of their new vehicle and invite local media and sponsors to attend. The event was held Monday, October 5th, from 10:00a.m. – 11:00a.m. in the parking lot/garage facilities of the team, which is sponsored by the Larson Institute. The AVT team was able to secure three speakers for the event: Mechanical and Nuclear Department Head Dr. Karen Thole, Director of the Hybrid and Hydrogen Vehicle Research Laboratory at Penn State Joel Anstrom, and State College Borough Council President Elizabeth Goreham.

The event was a huge success for the team! WJAC, a local television station, covered the event and featured it on the evening news; as well as our local college newspaper, The Daily Collegian, the College of Engineering, and the local Penn State blog, OnwardState. In fact, OnwardState covered the event after receiving a tweet from the team’s Twitter account, instead of a traditional press release. It surely is impressive how social media plays a huge role in media coverage.

All-in-all, the team is thrilled to finally have a vehicle we can work on. We can’t wait to begin implementing our design and are looking forward this year’s events, especially Daytona and Yuma.

Videos to the event can be found on the team’s YouTube page and photos can be found on the Facebook page.

• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
• Keeping your refrigerator full
• Unplugging cellphone and computer chargers when not in use
• Using public transportation whenever possible
• Riding your bike to work or school

It is great to see how students are becoming more environmentally aware through different outlets at Penn State.  EcoCAR is a great model for how the government and corporations can help college campuses do their part in conserving energy.  By facilitating students to create and engineer an energy efficient car, the government and EcoCAR’s corporate sponsors are investing in a future for energy conservation.

1. The winter workshop will be in Daytona, FL. It will be nice to travel to Florida in January.

2. THE VUE ARRIVES TUESDAY!!! Stay tuned for the official reveal of the VUE.

As always, check back for future blog posts and video posts.

The team left Boston around 1:00p.m. and got to State roughly around 9:00p.m. Although it rained, we enjoyed the drive back. Most of the team slept, so thank you to Shawn Getty for driving most of the way back!

Videos and photos will be posted within the next two days. Please stay tuned.

We will see everyone in Daytona for the Winter Workshop!

Team members Shawn Getty and Tushar Swamny headed to the A123 Systems headquarters for training on the energy storage systems in the EcoCARs. “We were able to get an inside look into A123 battery packs and got insider tips into CAN and VECTOR,” said Shawn Getty. “A123 is a great place and I was really interested in what we learned today.”

Derek Bailey and Jacob Ross attended dSPACE and Mototron training at the Hampton Inn. “We learned how to use dSPACE’s software including Control Desk and Automation Desk,” said Derek Bailey, co-team leader. “We can take a lot of this information back to Penn State and improve our dSPACE and HIL.”

Our outreach coordinator had the day off though. She was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery in Natick. Once all of the team members arrived to the hotel from their respective places, the team went to TGIFridays for dinner and to watch the Penn State vs. Iowa game. The team met up with the WVU team while at Fridays as well. We had a lot of fun and it was great to talk to members of the WVU team and watch the game. Although we lost, the AVT team had a great time.

Now it’s after midnight and we have to get to bed. We have to check out in the morning and head home after workshops again. We had a great time in Natick and Boston and love this place! We can’t wait to see everyone again in Daytona for the Winter Workshop Jan 7-10.

No pictures and/or videos will be available for Day 4. We will post them in a Day 5 video.

The team was able to see the sites of Boston early morning on our way to the Museum. Boston is really an amazing and beautiful place. After breakfast, the teams broke off into two tracks: outreach and overall technical. Today was the day were workshops really mattered because the organizers went over the overall point system and Year Two goals.

After a few hours of workshops, the teams assembled outside the Museum for a press conference. A123, MathWorks, and GM spokespeople spoke about their involvement in EcoCAR and what is to come. After lunch, we were able to take team photos and head back inside the Museum for Year Two competition breakdown and presentations. While our technical leaders were in presentations, our outreach coordinator particpaitede in a mock media interivew and media training. This will help with the increase popularity of outreach in EcoCAR.

Around 5:00p.m., teams loaded up on the buses and headed to the Faneuil Hall Cheers restaurant for dinner then spent the night out on the town. The Penn State team walked around downtown Boston and LIttle Italy. After arriving back at the hotel around 11p.m., the team crashed.

Check back for photos and videos of Day Three.

The team is now going to head out to workshops and training at The MathWorks facility!

12:53p.m. — Today’s workshop topics included Stateflow, Simulink, Model Based FMEAS, and media training and AVTC background.

Outreach coordinator,Dana Bubonovich, really enjoyed the PR101 training with Jennifer Eberline at Greenough Communications. “It was nice to get insider tips to pitching EcoCAR to the media,” said Dana. “Another highlight included the success stories from ChallengeX team member Amanda McAplin, now with Dept. of Energy, and former OSU outreach coordinator Beth Bezaire. Both provided great examples for outreach events and tips for new outreach coordinators.”

We will hopefully get quotes from other teammates as to how their workshops went. Check back later tonight for additional updates on the sponsor reception and tradeshow!

5:10p.m. — Just got back to the hotel! Sponsor social in less than an hour. Check back for details

9:34p.m. — The sponsor social/trade show was awesome as usual. It is always nice to meet our sponsors. Without their support, we would not be able to receive the hands-on experience and funding for EcoCAR. So, thank you sponsors! It was an enjoyable night. The food was great (shoutout to Crowne Plaza) and the team was able to mix and mingle with other teams, sponsors, faculty, and organizers of EcoCAR.

Day Three starts tomorrow! We head off to the Boston Museum of Science at 6:15a.m. Thank goodness for coffee to go!

Want a recap of Day Two? Check out our video: 2009 Fall Workshop: Day Two

ESS member and mentor Shawn Getty attended track one. During this track, they reviewed basic introduction and training to MATLAB. “The most interesting thing I learned today was how to publish my code to MATLAB, so when someone tries to re-access my work later, they only have to search the code.”

Derek Bailey, co-team leader, attended track three. Highlights include modeling a real-world motor inverter and how to use vehicle specific modeling tools to model the team’s Saturn Vue design.
After a long day of workshops, the team traveled to F1 Boston, the only two indoor racing tracks in New England. Members Dana Bubonovich, Shawn Getty, and Derek Bailey were able to race the carts, gaining speeds up to 40mph. Dana and Derek had to race against one another, Derek winning of course. But overall, Derek placed 2nd on Track One!! We seem to have a knack of placing 2nd in fun and exciting events put on by our EcoCAR sponsors.

Overall, a very exciting and eventful day, thanks to our MathWorks sponsor! Now, time to get some shut-eye for Day Two.

Check out photos from F1Boston and all of the Fall Workshop photos on our Facebook Fan Page or recap Day One by watching our video: 2009 EcoCAR Fall Workshop: Day One