Despite Challenges Ohio State EcoCAR Successfully Completes Year 2

Year 2 of the EcoCAR Mobility Challenge started like any other year. The Ohio State EcoCAR team 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 $7500 in prize money. The entire awards ceremony can be viewed here.

• 1st place – Subsystem Design Report ($2000)
• Best Final Technical Report ($2000)
• Best Human-Machine Interface & User Experience Video ($1000)
• Best Execution Plan ($500)
• Best Impact Report ($1000)
• Women in STEM Award: Kristina Kuwabara ($1000)

“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.”