Educational Activities
In addition to research, the Vehicle Technologies Program supports two college-level education programs to engage some of our nation's best engineering minds in advanced transportation research.
Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility
Challenge X is a three-year collegiate engineering competition sponsored by the Vehicle Technologies Program and General Motors Corporation. The competition, which runs from 2004 through 2007, offers college engineering students the opportunity to conduct hands-on research and development with leading-edge automotive propulsion, fuels, materials, and emissions control technologies.
Graduate Automotive Technology Education (GATE)
The DOE established the GATE Program in 1998 to train a future workforce of automotive engineering professionals knowledgeable about, and experienced in, developing and commercializing advanced automotive technologies to help overcome technology barriers preventing the development and production of cost-effective, high-efficiency vehicles for the U.S. market. To that end, DOE established 10 GATE Centers of Excellence at nine U.S. universities that addressed fuel cells, hybrid electric vehicle drivetrains and control systems, lightweight materials, direct-injection engines, and advanced energy storage.
In 2005, DOE began held a second competition to form new, or expand, existing GATE Centers of Excellence. Award recipients receive funds to support graduate fellowships and to establish and/or upgrade and expand course study work and laboratory work to support a graduate engineering degree with a focus or certificate in a critical automotive technology area. Eight universities received awards and will focus on hybrid propulsion systems, fuel cells, advanced computation and simulation, energy storage systems, biofuels and lightweight materials.