Penn State’s Advanced Vehicle Team will be hosting an event to show off their design architecture plan for the car they’re building for the EcoCAR 2 competition. The event will be held on Wednesday, March 28th from noon to 3:00 pm outside the Thomas D. Larson Pennsylvania Transportation Institution on University Drive and Hastings Road. Everyone is welcome to come check out the architecture design of the car and meet the members of the team.

EcoCAR 2 is a three year collegiate competition challenging 15 universities to reduce the environmental impact of a Chevrolet Malibu donated by General Motors without compromising the vehicle’s performance, safety and consumer satisfaction.

The teams design and build the car from the ground up, including designing and integrating the individual hardware needed to operate the vehicle. The competition takes place over three years from 2011 to 2013. The first year is dedicated to modeling and simulation. The second year dedicated to integrating components into the vehicle design and the construction of a mule vehicle and during the third year team members will complete the vehicle.

Executive Director Rick Price of Clean Cities Pittsburgh will be attending the event and will address attendees at 1:00 pm about the partnership between Clean Cities Pittsburgh and Penn State’s AVT.

The competition is sponsored by General Motors and the United States Department of Energy. Penn State’s AVT has been highly anticipating the event and are looking forward to meeting with students and the community to talk about their project. You can view the AVT’s website here. Visit www.ecocar2.org for more information on the competition.