![\"Voltaic](\"http:\/\/www.pixelube.com\/work\/c4c\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/voltaic-300x173.jpg\")
Photo courtesy of the UW College of Engineering<\/p><\/div>The winners of this year\u2019s University of Washington Environmental Innovation Challenge<\/a> were announced at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall this past week. The winning projects were selected by a panel of more than 90 industry representatives from both public and private enterprises, including Boeing, Siemens and Sound Transit.<\/p>\n The grand prize went to a project developed by UW undergraduate engineers who invented an electric vehicle drive train that converts any car from gas to electric power. Voltaic<\/a> created an electric vehicle modular drive train that can replace drive trains of gas-powered engines in existing models. The electric module can be customized to fit inside any car and the team displayed a Honda outfitted with its prototype electric engine to show how it powers the car. The company’s president is Trevor Crain, a senior in mechanical engineering at UW. Vivek Gowri, the automotive specialist, is also a senior in Mechanical Engineering. Kerwin Loukusa, a senior in electrical engineering, is the director of electronics.<\/p>\n The $10,000 grand prize was sponsored by the UW Center for Commercialization (C4C). Rick LeFaivre, Director of the New Ventures unit at C4C was impressed by the \u201cgreat turnout of student projects, with a number from UW.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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