FEV, Inc. Announces Winners of 2012 FEV Powertrain Development Award

Awards presented as part of Formula SAE Competition at Michigan International Speedway

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., May 15, 2012 – Advanced powertrain and vehicle systems engineering company FEV, Inc. announced the recipients of the FEV Powertrain Development Award, presented to three collegiate teams that designed, developed and demonstrated exemplary powertrain solutions in the 2012 Formula SAE competition held May 9 - 12 at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) near Brooklyn, MI. The Award was presented on Saturday, May 12 during the awards ceremony that was held at the conclusion of the competition.

The Powertrain Development Award considers critical powertrain relevant aspects, including performance, fuel economy, durability and cost in determining a winner. The award uses a quantitative scoring system intended to be a metric, or equation, for the optimization process that the student teams go through as they develop their solutions, much like the work that a professional engineer might perform on a day-to-day basis in the industry. There are multiple solution paths that a team can employ to win. Full details of the weight factors and scoring system are on the SAE website.

The 2012 FEV Powertrain Award winners were:

• 1st place: Oregon State University/Global Formula Racing (GFR), Corvallis, Oregon
  (764.1 of a possible 900 pts)
• 2nd place: Universitat Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany (724.6 pts)
• 3rd place: Ecole de Technologie Superieure (ETS), Montreal, Quebec, Canada (716.1 pts)

Notably, Oregon State was also won the FEV Powertrain Development Award in 2011, while Universitat Stuttgart moved from third place in 2011 to second in 2012. Locally, the University of Michigan, which finished in 6th place in 2011 moved to fifth place in 2012, the University of Toledo ranked 10th, the University of Akron was 13th, and the University of Michigan - Dearborn was ranked 14th in the FEV Powertrain Award ranking.

"FEV has been both a corporate sponsor as well as a team sponsor for many years. The goals of the SAE Foundation to further education in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are not only of great importance, but fully consistent with our corporate goals. This event represents the culmination of a series of Foundation-sponsored activities that are designed to develop young talent to fill tomorrow's technical jobs. It is a thrill to be a part of this competition as a sponsor," said Robert J. Last, vice president of communications and purchasing for FEV. "This program enables engineering students to demonstrate practical application skills that complement their classroom work -- the same skills that they will need to excel in their careers. Formula SAE is an excellent example of a program that successfully grows the kind of engineering talent that our company will need in the future."

Student teams must adhere to the rules specified by the SAE, which can be found on its Web site, www.sae.org. In the process of developing engineering solutions for their vehicles, students will have also mastered critical elements of strategy planning, project management, contingency planning, and logistics management, according to Last.

"FSAE represents a microcosm of the complete engineering and business project cycle, including fundraising and defending the project in a detailed presentation. These are essential skills that engineering students need to demonstrate to be successful in the industry," said Last.