They say the best students are the ones who are driven. At Ohio State University, this hypothesis could be taken both literally and figuratively.

Unleashing a high level of technological excellence that could potentially catalyze the automotive industry to embrace a "greener future," The Ohio State University earned top honors this past summer at the 2009 finals of the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge competition in Toronto, Canada. OSU's team of "eco engineers" was awarded the top distinction for its design of an Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV).

Reducing by 50% the amount of electricity used for street and roadway lighting, the RoadStar luminaire ensures a high-quality, long-lasting solution to deliver sought-after energy and ownership cost savings.

Kent Helfrich, Director, Powertrain Software Engineering at General Motors and an executive lead on the EcoCAR organizing committee, makes the announcement of Ohio State University winning the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge competition in Toronto.

Several members of The Ohio State University's eco-engineers pose with the Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) they designed in being awarded the winner.

The Columbus, Ohio-based institute for higher learning took first place out of 17 universities in the U.S. and Canada that competed in the first major milestone of the three-year competition, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, the Government of Canada and many others. The competition challenges university engineering students across North America to re-engineer a 2009 Saturn VUE to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions, while retaining the vehicle's performance and consumer appeal.

Students were encouraged to explore a variety of solutions including hybrid, plug-in hybrid, fuel cell, electric, and EREVs. Almost half of the EcoCAR teams, including Ohio State, University of Wisconsin and Virginia Tech, chose to design EREVs, which, similar to GM's Chevy Volt, demonstrate full performance with an electric powertrain for all electric driving and an optimized combustion engine that can extend the range of the vehicle with its on-board fuel storage.

During the past year, participating teams logged countless hours working in their "green garages" to design the next generation of vehicle technologies. For this first year of competition, students were tasked with creating innovative concepts for vehicle design and given the green light to implement advanced software and computer modeling tools, which allowed for testing and refinement under the simulation of real-world conditions.

The winning team's EREV provides a practical solution that will increase energy efficiency and reduce environmental impacts, according to Ohio State University's website. The Ohio State's design was powered by a 1.8-liter engine and fueled by E85 ethanol. The next-generation design predicts a 300% increase in fuel economy over the production 4 cylinder vehicle.

The second place vehicle design, engineered by students at the University of Victoria, is also an EREV that runs on E85 ethanol. Mississippi State University was awarded third place for its EREV, B20 biodiesel.

"All 17 EcoCAR teams worked tirelessly, studying the available technologies, doing the necessary research, and formulating their incredible designs." said John Lushetsky, with the U.S. Department of Energy, in a statement. "Each of the EcoCAR projects displayed superior quality of work and the innovative spirit that will be critical as these future eco-engineers lead the country towards a clean energy future."

"I commend all of the teams for their hard work and creative thinking," said Elizabeth A. Lowery, vice president, environment, energy and safety policy for General Motors.

Lighting the Way to Transportation Innovation
After years of extensive research and development efforts, Boisbriand, Quebec, Canada-based Philips Lumec has unveiled the RoadStar, a state-of-the-art LED luminaire designed specifically for large area, street, and roadway lighting applications.

The RoadStar was launched simultaneously on September 13 in the U.S, at the 2009 International Public Works Congress and Exposition in Columbus, Ohio, and in Canada at the AIMQ ( Association des Ingénieurs Municipaux du Québec/Municipal Engineers Association of Quebec ) in Trois-Rivières.

With the potential to reduce by 50% the amount of electricity a city/state/country uses for street and roadway lighting, the RoadStar luminaire uses LUXEON ® Rebel power LEDs to ensure a high-quality long-lasting solution to deliver the expected energy and ownership cost savings, Denis Lavoie, engineer and vice president of marketing and sales for Philips Lumec, said.

"Besides the performance of the RoadStar, two other things distinguish it from the competition: its pricing and its design," said Lavoie. "We knew that for this to be a viable solution both environmentally and energy-wise, its design had to appeal to our potential clients and it had to be appropriately priced for roadway applications."

Philips Lumec addressed the main concerns of various Departments of Transportation, landscape architects, and municipal engineers when designing the product, as RoadStar is noted for saving approximately 50% on energy consumption compared with traditional HID CobraHeads.

Requiring no special tooling to install or maintain, RoadStar has the ability to replace existing energy-hungry HID (High Intensity Discharge) CobraHead lighting fixtures without a need to change a city's lighting infrastructure, noted Lavoie. Installers simply swap one for the other and instantly reap the benefits of the sustainable technology.

Philips Lumec's patented LED technology provides over 70,000 hours of operational life, and the RoadStar also contributes to the environmental cause by considerably reducing the need to constantly replace burnt out lamps. This reduces the need to deploy maintenance trucks and personnel by up to seven times, saving municipalities money and lowering their carbon emissions at the same time.