DAAP STUDENTS FOCUS ON ALTERNATIVE FUEL SOURCES

Ten industrial design students at DAAP are directing their focus this quarter on the research and design of alternative fuel source vehicles.

The course, Transportation Design Studio, is a unique opportunity for the students, according to DAAP administrators.

There are only five schools in the Unites States and 18 locations worldwide that offer the program. General Motors, Daimler Chrysler, and Mitsubishi sponsor the Transportation Design Studio course. This gives the students an opportunity to get an inside look at the industry and what may be expected of them if they decide to enter that profession.

Each student was required at the beginning of the quarter to do extensive research on alternative fuel sources.

Then they were given a project to design their own automobile that used the type of fuel source they thought to be most practical and could be used for future automobiles.

Each student has also chosen a market for which his or her car will be designed.

Some have chosen small run-about type cars, some are designing vehicles that are more family oriented and some are even designing vehicles for public transportation.

Among the most popular alternate power sources are solar power, methanol, electricity and hydrogen.

Michael Roller, a third-year industrial design student, has chosen to design a small two-seater vehicle which hydrogen would power.

He said the primary market for his product would likely be the West Coast area where strict emission regulations are already in place. Another student is designing an automobile that could run on hemp-based methanol.

“Alternative fuel source vehicles are the future,” said Brigid O’Kane, associate professor of design.

Through their research, the students have discovered many reasons for coming to this conclusion, one of them being that we are running out gasoline. Oil reserves are diminishing more and more each year and foreign suppliers are becoming increasingly unstable.

Another factor is pollution. The students have learned that automobiles are responsible for enormous amount of emissions each year. These emissions have tremendous effects on our environment.

With ever-growing public concern about automotive pollution, the students believe alternative fuel source vehicles will soon be highly marketable products.

According to Roller, the automotive industry is also starting to notice a need for change and can see that alternative fuel could be their future.

“Those companies who are not researching alternative fuel sources are going to be in trouble because they are going to be behind,” he said.

“The traditional means of transportation needs to be revolutionized,” said Okane. “This is a nucleus of where something like that could happen.”


Thursday, November 7, 2002
DAAP students focus on alternative fuel sources
Studio’s goal: cleaner cars, air
Nick Cope, The News Record (University of Cincinnati)