Penn State’s Advance Vehicle Team took home an impressive first place overall finish in this year’s EcoCAR 2 Competition among 15 universities last week in San Diego. EcoCAR is a competition which involves teams from various universities altering a donated Chevy Malibu to make it more environmentally friendly by increasing gas mileage and decreasing emissions. At the same time, the team must ensure consumer safety and acceptability.

The Penn State engineers took home 10 additional awards this year on top of the championship, up from six last year.

“I’m proud of the job our team did with our vehicle over this past year,” said team co-leader Chris Golecki. “And I’d be just as proud of the work we did if we were 15th place.”

Sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy, the competition awarded Penn State $18,000 in prize money, which the team will use toward next year’s competition. The Penn State squad was able to build an ethanol (E85) plug-in hybrid electric vehicle and was the first to pass safety and technical inspections.

“It was incredible,” said communication manager and recent graduate, Taylor Kidd. “What a perfect ending to our time at Penn State.”

Congratulations to the following team members that traveled to this year’s competition:

• Tony Burt (Mechanical Engineering, ’12, Hagerstown, MD)
• Casey Dietrich (Mechanical Engineering, ’12, Fleetwood, Pa.)
• Sam Foran,(Electrical Engineering, ’12, Minersville, Pa.)
• Mike Frey (Mechanical Engineering, ’12, Macungie, Pa.)
• Chris Golecki (graduate student, Mechanical Engineering, Scranton, Pa.)
• Jacob Hauptman (Business, Los Angeles)
• Taylor Kidd (Public Relations/Economics, ’12, Mechanicsburg Pa.)
• Alex Kirsch (Mechanical Engineering, ’12, Ebensburg Pa.)
• Gary Neal, Faculty Advisor
• Cheyenne Sexton (Public Relations, Elizabethtown Pa.)
• Luke Shepley (Electrical Engineering, ’12, Shillington Pa.)
• Eric Skibba (Mechanical Engineering, ’12, Mill Hall Pa.)
• Ryan Smith (Engineering, Newport News, Va.).