Blog: UC Davis EcoCAR Builds Momentum at Year 3 Competition
UC Davis EcoCAR reached new milestones at this year's national challenge, earning top awards for energy efficiency and design. Communications manager Riddhi Puranik shares how the team proved they're ready to accelerate into Year 4.
From Davis to the Desert
Our team stood in the mid-May Arizona heat, watching our electric vehicle, Nebula, hit over 60 miles per hour for the first time. When it happened, it was one of those surreal "we actually did it" moments, and just one of many during this year's EcoCAR EV Challenge Year 3 Competition.
Held from May 12–23 in Yuma, Arizona, and San Diego, California, the Year 3 EcoCAR EV Challenge brought together over 200 students from 13 North American universities. Each team, including ours from UC Davis, had spent the past year of this four-year challenge working on redesigning and refining a 2023 Cadillac LYRIQ to make it cleaner, smarter and more efficient.
I'm Riddhi Puranik, a recent graduate with dual degrees in communication and design, and the communications manager for the UC Davis EcoCAR team. I've had the pleasure of watching the team that is made up of undergraduate and graduate students across different disciplines reach new heights in this competition and develop critical skills. Each of us brought something different to the table, whether it was building vehicle systems, running simulations, coordinating outreach, or just helping get our vehicle, which we call Nebula, on the road.
How Our Vehicle Performed
Going into competition, we weren't sure how everything would hold up under real-world testing conditions. However, we were able to hit some major milestones:
- We passed both the low- and high-speed road safety evaluations on our first try, after fixing a surprise vehicle control issue in less than a day.
- We completed our first high-speed tests of over 60 miles per hour! That hadn't been possible in Davis, where we'd only done low-speed testing.
- We competed in 11 of 13 vehicle events, which was a big step forward for us. Some of these were Adaptive Cruise Control Testing, Drivability Testing and Driver Monitoring Systems.
Team Highlights and Awards
All of that hard work paid off. We made huge improvements from the previous two years of competition and walked away with several awards:
- First Place: CARB Energy Consumption – Our vehicle was one of the most energy-efficient at a testing event that was conducted at the California Air Resources Board earlier this year!
- Second Place: MathWorks Model-Based Design Award – We were recognized for our software and modeling work.
- Fourth Place Overall – Our best placement yet!
- Runner-Up: Excellence in Leadership — Riddhi Puranik, communications manager
- Outstanding Faculty Advisor — Dahlia Garas, research program director for the Electric Vehicle Research Center at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies
The Road Ahead
This year's competition taught us a lot; not just about the car, but about what it takes to work through problems, stay flexible and keep moving forward as a team. During competition, we even developed scripts and software to allow the behavior of the vehicle to be calibrated in real time, which will greatly speed up our workflow as we move into future testing.
We're proud of what we accomplished, and even more excited for what's next
Year 4, here we come.
For the UC Davis student interested in engineering, business or communication and wants to work on real-world tech challenges, UC Davis EcoCAR would be a great fit. We're always looking for curious, motivated people to join the team.
