The Ohio State University

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OVERVIEW

The mission of the CAR Consortium is to provide industry and government with opportunities to participate in original, leveraged automotive research in three focused thrust areas. The CAR Consortium also provides educational opportunities for graduate students, and therefore is an excellent source of potential employees for consortium Members. The newly renovated CAR laboratory building, continuing university support and the availability of the Transportation Research Center (TRC) are some of the leveraging benefits that the consortium members receive.

MEMBERS

THRUST AREA

The consortium research thrust areas are:

Advanced Propulsion Systems (APS);

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS);

Vehicle Noise, Vibration and Dynamics (NVD).

Each thrust concentrates on research areas that are unique to OSU and offers consortium members an opportunity to select research projects.

ABOUT THE CONSORTIUM

The CAR Industrial Consortium has been in operation since 1999, and has seen the participation of 25 automotive OEMs and suppliers over the years, with an average membership of 10-12 companies. FY 2007 members and thrust areas of affiliation are listed in the Membership Table. Members sign an agreement that covers all relevant contractual and legal matters. A copy of the agreement is available upon request. The membership fiscal year begins on October 1, but members who join after this date are eligible to receive retroactive benefits. Thus, joining the consortium later in the year results in the same deliverables. Projects currently funded include:

• Aging and reliability of Li-ion batteries in PHEVs (APS)
• Energy Management of PHEVs (APS)
• Control and Diagnosis of NOx Aftertreatment Systems (APS)
• Advanced Power Electronics and Drives for HEVs (APS)
• Intelligent Vehicles: Safety and Information Issues (ITS)
  • Sensing and Control for Autonomous Driving
  • Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
• Quantification of structure-borne noise paths (NVD)

MEMBERSHIP FEES

Annual membership fee is $30,000 per thrust area. Funds thus collected are divided among individual projects. Typically, 5-8 projects are conducted each year, and each member leverages significant resources. For example, a company that were interested in just one of the projects would in effect pay only a fraction – typically less than half, of the cost of that project. Members are welcome to participate in and steer the direction of these projects. A final project review is hosted by a Member company, usually in the Detroit area, in September. Following the project reviews, deliverables (including theses, algorithms, data and simulation models) are made available to the Members through a secure website.

MEMBER BENEFITS

• Access to common pre-competitive research projects with leveraged sponsorship.
• Significant leveraging of government –sponsored research programs.
• Access to CAR professors and research scientists a for limited amount of free consulting.
• Access to all theses and CAR reports that are not proprietary.
• Opportunity to sponsor named graduate fellowships at reduced fees.
• Direct recruitment opportunities.
• Opportunities for teaming with partner members on bids for major government programs.
• Interaction with other consortium members on research projects in areas of mutual interest.
• Reduced fees for test facility use at CAR.