Michael Lewis - US grants

The University of Texas (UT) will establish a site within the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for Efficient Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation Systems (EV-STS), joining existing sites at the University of Alabama, Arizona State University, and the University of Louisville. This Center has been established to support the U.S. automotive/ground transportation industry's efforts to meet demanding new federal regulations governing vehicle fuel economy and emissions, as well as society's expectations for improved sustainability in economic and personal activities. The EV-STS Center engages the industry's critical stakeholders - vehicle manufacturers, component and system suppliers, fleet operators, energy companies, ground transportation industry infrastructure providers, and state and local governments - in identifying important efficiency and/or sustainability related problems, and formulating research projects that develop innovative solutions to these problems.

The mission of the EV-STS Center and its UT Site is to leverage collaborations among corporate, government, and academic partners to conduct and disseminate industry-relevant research on technologies and tools that facilitate the design, manufacture, deployment, and operation of energy efficient, environmentally sustainable ground vehicles. The scope of this mission includes passenger cars, light- and heavy-duty trucks, and motorized off-road equipment. It encompasses both vehicle-level technologies and the infrastructure and transportation systems that incorporate ground vehicles. The mission is divided into four primary thrust areas: (1) powertrains for full-electric vehicles and the entire continuum of hybrid powertrains; (2) advanced internal combustion engines and alternative fuels; (3) non-powertrain vehicle systems; and (4) ground transportation systems and infrastructure. Within EV-STS, the UT Site will include research in all four thrust areas. UT will perform research that includes but is not limited to methods for sustaining the most fuel efficient gasoline engines given future emissions limits; methods for making choices among alternative fuel and alternative energy source options; real-world fuel economy; application of a new mathematical tool, iso-geometry, to the design of heavy-duty vehicles; evolution of the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet given consumer options among conventional vehicles, light electric vehicles, plug-in vehicles, and autonomous vehicles; use of fuel cells as range extenders to increase the zero emissions range of medium-duty parcel delivery vans; and development of a mathematical model to allow assessment of the facilities requirements for expansion of electric transit bus fleets.