Penn State Advanced Vehicle Team

Team Engineering

Penn State takes team engineering very seriously. The PSUAVT Team is divided up into six different teams that specialize in one of six areas of the vehicle. These six areas are Controls, Electrical, Engine, Fuels, Integration, and Lightweighting.

When deciding on adding or changing new components to the vehicle, the teams collaborate with each other to determine the best procedure and modification for the task. This ensures that the team produces a fully integrated vehicle that performs up to production standards.

Once a decision is made, the team in charge of the project gets to work installing/modifying the system. Our teams work around-the-clock making sure that the component is installed safely and correctly. This leaves our maximum turn around time to be under 5 days for a new system, and 2 days for an existing system.

After the component has been installed, the next task is to test and refine the installed system. To do so, that system enters a 5-day freeze that allows PSU engineers to find all the bugs, verify the interaction with other systems, and make sure that the system is operating safely. After the freeze phase, the team in charge has 10 days to refine the system to increase it’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Using this process for all the tasks on the vehicle, the PSUAVT Team produces top quality vehicles ready for the road to the future.