The Ohio State University

A team of Ohio State College of Engineering students has placed third in the nation in a four-year, U.S. Department of Energy competition to improve automotive technology in engine efficiency and emissions. 

The Ohio State Reverb was announced among the winners at the conclusion of the Challenge X competition yesterday at the nation's capitol. In addition, the Department of Energy named Ohio State as one of 16 universities selected to participate in the next competition, called EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge, in which students must re-engineer a 2009 Saturn Vue to achieve improved fuel economy and reduced emissions while retaining the vehicle's performance and consumer appeal.  

Sai Kamarajugadda and Farzad Ahmadkhanlou, doctoral students in mechanical engineering, respectively took first and second place at the Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum in the engineering discipline.

Now in its 22^nd year, the Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum is co-sponsored by the Council of Graduate Students, the Graduate School and the Office of Research at Ohio State. The Forum is held each year to provide professional development experience for graduate students, encourage graduate students to share their research and to recognize outstanding scholarship within the University.

Two mechanical engineering students were recently awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship that provides three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based master's or doctoral degrees; totaling an amount of nearly $121,500 for each award recipient.

Craig Pavlich loves to remind Eric Schacht about the time he "broke the car."

"Well, I was driving rather ... aggressively, and I snapped the axle shaft," said Schacht, a junior in electrical engineering. "We had to get the car towed."

"Everyone's waiting for him, and he never shows up," said Pavlich, a senior in mechanical engineering.

"The GM guys welded it back together," Schacht said.

Shannon Yee, a graduate student in nuclear engineering, won a second place award and $1,500 at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) in Seattle, Washington. Yee is also a U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative National Fellow at Ohio State.