Driving the Future of Innovation: MSU EcoCAR team picked for upcoming national competition
Contact: Carl Smith
STARKVILLE, Miss.—The future of automotive innovation continues to run through Mississippi State as students from all walks of academia will again compete in the upcoming national EcoCAR Innovation Challenge.
MSU is one of 20 North American universities picked for the competition beginning this fall. Over four years, teams will develop the next generation of energy-efficient vehicles while incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning and other emerging technologies and mobility solutions.
The university has participated in EcoCAR competitions for more than 20 years and continues to rank among the program’s top performers. Its teams have won the national competition multiple times, and in the current 2022-26 EcoCAR EV Challenge cycle, MSU earned 14 first-place awards and honors for outstanding community impact, faculty advising and workmanship.
“I am exceptionally proud of the national reputation that our students have earned through all these years. Also, I could not be more pleased that we were selected to compete in the next round,” said MSU Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems Executive Director Clay Walden. “We are fortunate at CAVS to have a front-row seat to see the incredible growth in our students’ skills.”
The upcoming competition features 20 teams divided equally between two tracks named after sponsoring automakers General Motors and Stellantis. As part of the GM track, MSU students will transform a Chevrolet Blazer EV by replacing its rear drive unit and propulsion system’s control modules, equipping the car with autonomy sensors, and implementing an autonomous driving system. The team also will deploy wireless vehicle-to-everything connectivity, allowing it to communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure while in autonomous transit.
To support this work, MSU is partnering with the Airbus Helicopters Inc. plant in Columbus, where students will receive on-site training on designing, fabricating and testing custom wiring harnesses.
All 20 teams will compete in the separate Product Innovation track in which they conceive, develop and validate innovative products related to their project. To determine a competition winner, organizers will add the teams’ individual track scores with their Product Innovation score. Approximately $150,000 will be awarded to teams across a variety of subcategories representing deliverables and activities from each track and the overall program.
The current MSU EV Challenge EcoCAR team is comprised of more than 80 students from many majors, including mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, aerospace engineering, industrial and systems engineering, computer science and engineering, cybersecurity, communications, and business administration. A similarly sized team is expected for the upcoming competition, which gives students hands-on experience that positions them to excel in their careers following graduation.
“Borrowing a phrase from Dean David Ford: This is the ultimate form of experiential learning for students of all majors. We have engineers; we have computer scientists; we have marketing and communications students—we draw participants from almost every corner of the university,” said John Ball, the MSU Bagley College of Engineering Professor and Robert D. Guyton Chair of Teaching Excellence who serves as EcoCAR team lead faculty advisor. “They get unparalleled access to students and other experts participating in this, and there are a lot of industry experts guiding them and watching them as they learn. Many of our students go on to work for these companies just because of the impression they make during the competition.”
Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.