Penn State Intercom......July 12, 2001

Power Lion roars to ninth place
in FutureTruck Challenge competition

Penn State's Power Lion, a hybrid electric 2000 model Chevrolet Suburban re-engineered by students from the Society of Automotive Engineers at the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, won or placed in several categories in the recent FutureTruck Challenge at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford, Mich.

Penn State ranked ninth overall in the competition and the University also was recognized for its innovative achievement in the area of tailpipe emissions of the diesel teams that participated in the challenge.

The team received second place in the Cisco Telematics Award competition. The Cisco award honors excellence in systems and information management, meeting the needs of the driver and passengers and the ability to transfer information to and from the vehicle via wireless methods.

Nearly 40 students worked on the Power Lion with 23 people attending the challenge.

Contestants in the annual FutureTruck Challenge re-engineer a chosen vehicle while keeping the same performance, utility, safety and affordability consumers seek. This year the competition involved more than 250 students from 15 proposal-selected North American universities.

Complete results are posted on the organization's Web site at http://www.futuretruck.org/competition/2001winners.html

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