An Electrifying Experience for Student Designers T
hrough a unique partnership with Nissan North America, students in the Master of Product Develop- ment (MPD) program at Carnegie Mellon spent the Spring semester exploring the future of electric vehicles.
In a new course that brought to- gether faculty and researchers from the College of Engineering, School of Design, and Tepper School of Business, MPD candidates had the chance to develop practical innova- tions for Nissan’s electric vehicles. They worked closely with profes- sionals from Nissan’s advanced planning and product planning groups, engineers from Nissan Technical Center North America, and researchers and designers from Nissan Design America. The course was taught by
system, an automated vehicle cleaning system, and a suite of ergonomic features to reduce stress. “Carnegie Mellon’s interdisciplinary approach offered these students the opportunity to gain experience on real-world projects,” says Cagan, who co- directs the MPD program. “We’re looking forward to the possibility of seeing these solutions on the road, in future iterations of Nissan electric vehicles.”
The all-electric Nissan LEAF will debut in December.
Professor Jonathan Cagan of MechE, as well as Peter Boatwright, Associate Professor of Marketing, and Eric Anderson, Associate Professor of Design. Six student teams each spent the semester working
toward a single concept. Their innovations included an in-car workstation, an interactive dashboard for enter- tainment and connectivity, a grocery-shopping support
Nissan, the leader in electric- vehicle technology, will be intro- ducing the Nissan LEAF, the first affordable all-electric vehicle for the mass market, to the U.S. in December. This five-passenger vehicle runs on pure electricity, uses no gas, creates zero emis- sions, and has a tested range of
100 miles on a single charge. “Nissan’s electric vehicle program presents an unprec- edented opportunity for re-imagining the future of trans- portation,” says Rachel Nguyen, Director of Advanced Planning at Nissan. “The student teams offered uniquely informed perspectives on zero-emission mobility and what that means for their generation.”•
MechE Students Shine at “Meeting of the Minds” U
ndergraduate students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering had the chance to present their best ideas at the 2010 “Meeting of the Minds” event, held on May 4. Sponsored by the Undergraduate Research Symposium, Meeting of the Minds is a University-wide celebration of student research and creativity. Nine MechE students collaborated with other engineer- ing students to develop an innovative project called “Robot Colony V.” This project won a Lifetime Achieve- ment Award in the IBM Undergraduate “Smarter Planet” competition. MechE team members included Douglas Bernstein, Jonathan Boerner, Andrew Burks, Gerald Carlson, Katherine Coste, Daniel Curham, Jaywoo Kim, Michael Ornstein, and Daniel Shope.
Other team members included Rohan Aletty (Electrical and Computer Engineering) and Michael Sandboth (Computer Science). In the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry competition, this same team won an award for a project titled “Rob Orchestra V.”
In the Sigma Xi competition, another interdisciplinary engineering team won third place for its project called “OrthoAssist: Toward an Actuated Upper Extremity Orthosis for Strength Augmentation and Rehabilitation.” MechE team members were Alexandra Cirillo, Marina Musicus, Daniel Shope, and Heather Tomko. They were joined by Vani Rajan and Andrew Strat, both from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.•
CARNEGIE MECH 7
(Photos courtesy Nissan)
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