Ecocar: reaching out

How informed are you about sustainable mobility? How about sustainability in general? These are the types of questions Jennifer Spector, Outreach Coordinator for the RHIT (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) Ecocar team, aims to address as she strives to promote what her team has been involved in for the past three years.

This year, Spector has been devoted to creating a consumer campaign in order to reach out to RHIT’S small town of Terre Haute, IN. There is little discussion about sustainable living or sustainable mobility in Terre Haute, giving Spector and the Ecocar team an open platform for promoting the topic. Spector’s consumer campaign aims to make people aware of the team, the challenge, and the technologies the team has been using in creating its vehicles. “I want to make it known to everyone about sustainable mobility and living–not just about hybrid and electric components but everything the team has been using,” Spector explained.

Spector’s ultimate goal is to extend awareness to the younger generations–to any future engineers. Specifically, she is promoting RHIT, Ecocar, and the topic of sustainability to middle school and high school students. In doing so, Spector stands by her message, saying, “It’s important to reach out to them because they are our future. We can make them aware about where our society is headed, what schools they could possibly attend, and which companies are hiring who.”

Spector has set up events over the next couple of months to demonstrate and promote sustainable mobility. The RHIT team will bring the vehicle they built for the Ecocar challenge to the schools, give presentations about the challenge, and put the car on a lift so students can see what kind of work the team has done. What’s more, she has also set up a type of mentor program in which a student can be matched with members from the Ecocar team to discuss hybrid technologies and sustainable mobility.

Certainly, every school could use events such as the ones Jennifer Spector and her RHIT Ecocar team are promoting. So, these questions remain: How knowledgeable are you about sustainable mobility, and what can be done in your area to promote it?

To follow the Ecocar team and check out the progress of their school visits, go to ecocar.rose-hulman.edu.