Dr. Casey Wardynski, Superintendent of the Huntsville City Board of Education, and Patricia Jebeles, Trustee of the Greenpower USA Foundation, announced that Huntsville, Alabama will become the home of "Greenpower USA," the first international extension of the Greenpower UK Education Trust (founded in the UK in 1999), a highly engaging and inspirational design-build-race competition for students. The announcement complimented a keynote address at the Siemens Solid Edge University in Atlanta delivered by Karsten Newbury, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Siemens' Mainstream Engineering Software. Dr. Wardynski stated that "the formation of Greenpower USA will provide many innovative learning opportunities to students, both in Huntsville, and across the United States."
The Greenpower Education Trust sponsors the competition, which requires students, with help from teachers and industry mentors, to design, build, and race electric cars. Each team is given the same specified motor, batteries, and strict set of regulations to follow. Students must utilize their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills to dream, design, fabricate and test a competition-worthy vehicle before racing it against other schools' Greenpower cars. Greenpower has a vision of advancing education in engineering and associated technology subjects by presenting them as a fascinating and dynamic career choices. Since holding their first electric car challenge event in 1999, the organization has expanded its initiative and now works with over 8000 students around the U.K.
Last year, high schools students from the Huntsville City School District became the first team from the United States to ever compete in a Greenpower race in the United Kingdom. Team USA, as they were known, won honors as "Best Newcomer" and captured the "Siemens Innovator Award." The student team will compete again this fall at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in Chichester, West Sussex in the United Kingdom.
Superintendent Wardynski will coordinate the launch of the Greenpower Challenge in the United States with the completion of regulation compliant race-tracks at three schools in Huntsville. The efforts will make Huntsville, Alabama an ideal host city for state, regional, national and international Greenpower events.
Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle says that, "as an engineering community, we are enormously proud of the high level of talent and ingenuity among our students. We are proud to have Huntsville host Greenpower USA, and look forward to engaging students from across the world here in the Rocket City."
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