Year 2 of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge started like any other year. The Ohio State EcoCAR team members (pictured above, this winter pre-COVID-19) was busy meeting in their office, working diligently on the competition vehicle and preparing for another successful season, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought many of those activities to a halt when campus shut down in mid-March.
“Year 2 was supposed to focus on the vehicle build. When COVID-19 caused us to go completely remote and leave the garage we turned our focus on the final competition deliverables which were written reports or video presentations,” said Kristina Kuwabara, co-engineering manager and CSMS lead for the Ohio State EcoCAR team.
To celebrate the hard work and achievements of the teams, the EcoCAR program held a virtual awards ceremony on July 16 and presented 20 awards for competition deliverables. Ohio State walked away with six awards and $7,500 in prize money. The entire awards ceremony can be viewed here.
- 1st place – Subsystem Design Report ($2,000)
- Best Final Technical Report ($2,000)
- Best Human-Machine Interface & User Experience Video ($1,000)
- Best Execution Plan ($500)
- Best Impact Report ($1,000)
- Women in STEM Award: Kristina Kuwabara ($1,000)
“I am very proud of the team,” said Shawn Midlam-Mohler, Ohio State EcoCAR’s faculty adviser. “This was a tough year for so many reasons and they gave it their all, learned a lot and had a great deal of success.”