Volkswagen Design Project

I have an update for you all with my Volkswagen Design Project.

It is up and running!!!! :) :) :)


We didn't think it would go through at first. There were a couple of political fallouts that occurred last week...

Long story short: Volkswagen offered three separate project ideas to UWM. Two groups took up the offer to work with Volkswagen: a group headed up by Sonja, Eric, and me; and a second group of seniors, with their Capstone/Senior Design Project.

Well, Volkswagen was slightly more impressed by the Senior Design Project, and grabbed onto the coattails of that group, hoping they'd come up with some more impressive results than mine.


One major slap in the face later, Volkswagen received an e-mail from the Senior Design Team, that was then forwarded to me:

Dr. Henry-Paul,

I am sorry to inform you that another one of our contacts for potential senior design projects presented us a new project that our group decided would be more beneficial for us. This way we will be able to have more hands on experiences with prototyping and testing at the company's facilities as opposed to conducting surveys and applying research.

Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and I hope that you can understand where we are coming from as students. We greatly appreciate the time and thought that you have put into this project for us.


Regards,

Steph Ray


Let's just say his response was curt and disappointed. I don't want to copy/paste it here.

But, it threatened to cancel all affiliations between VW and UWM. Forever.

A little bit of ass-kissing and promising that my group was still enthusastic, the project was still guaranteed for us!

In fact, the Volkswagen contact (Dr. Bensler, the very man who I met and guided me around Wolfsburg for the day) requested to have one single liason or contact with UWM, instead of getting the runaround.

I was assigned the role of the liason!!! So NOW, all Volkswagen talk goes right through me.


Wow.


I am HONORED!! This is totally just for me, I will put my heart and soul into this duty!!


Besides, Dr. Bensler has met me already, on very thankful circumstances, so I do believe he is pleased to do all the logistics with me. He knows VW is my baby. :)

I think that Dr. Bensler is also relieved my group is still full-fledged and ready for this project, because now we are making this more of a big deal than that stinking design group ever could have.




THE VERDICT:
After considering each of the three separate ideas Volkswagen gave us, we committed to building an entire concept car for Volkswagen, called a 'gray panther vehicle.' Basically, a vehicle for our "graying public"...a car that is adaptive to elderly people.

However, we are also including the other two projects into this one project, since building a whole car pretty much envelopes any subsidiary project.

The other two projects included designing an intelligent seat, and designing interior/cabin variability.

:) :) :)

I am basically the front-runner of this project, and Sonja and Eric are my VPs. Although, I'd love to triangle-head this with them, since they are excellent leaders and I know I couldn't do this all alone! We are all super-great, super-close friends.

Sonja is in charge of apportioning the project with the deans of each engineering degree, so we can get credit for our own Capstone/Senior Design Project. aka: THIS IS A HUGE DEAL. She has had to talk to Dean Perez several times, and he is saying how this will add mountains of prestige to our college, especially since our regularly-scheduled audit is occuring in 2008. He said that with this to consider, UWM is going to look good. Yay! I have so much pride for this school, so don't you knock it til you try living here and running it yourself. :P

Eric is in charge of the engine block and under-the-hood work of our vehicle. We are going all out!! He is going to help us put in an electric/hybrid motor!!! No more stinking combustion engine...they're only 25% efficient, anyway! (The rest of the energy produced is lost as frictional and heat energy.) So not only will we have a stellar vehicle with lots of sutble gadgets and creature comforts for our seniors, but we'll have an innovative, self-sustainable engine!!! Hoo-rah, mechanical engineering!

Alas, I am in charge of the human resources, conference calls with Volkswagen, organizing our student meetings, creating surveys and research topics, and heading up the compilation of all these sub-groups into one. Eventually, when I get all the formalities taken care of, I'd like to settle in and help with the cabin variability and ergonomics of our car. I mean c'mon...industrial engineering...knowing all the funky little things Volkswagen instills into each of their models...having researched my own personal vehicle for years...this all adds up to say that this is TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY!! :) :) Actually, I've been secretly dreaming to get into this facet of engineering once I enter the full-time workforce.

I am so enthused! And glad that I will have this over the summertime to keep me busy, since I am not too sure about returning back to Green Bay for the summer. (Even though I am happy to be with Schneider National and my family.)


I've said it before, and I'll say it again: GOD I love this company. I believe in their products so much, and I am floored to have this opportunity to serve them.

DRIVERS WANTED!

:D