This talk reviews the organization and research programs of the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research, OSU-CAR. OSU-CAR is an interdisciplinary research center in the OSU College of Engineering, established in 1991. Some 60 graduate students pursue their advanced degrees at OSU-CAR, which also offers a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Automotive Systems Engineering.
OSU-CAR is a participant in the China-USA CERC-CVC. The second part of the talk reviews the contributions of OSU-CAR to the CERC-CVC. One topic in particular is outlined in greater detail: that of battery aging, and of the characterization and modeling of aging mechanisms in Li-ion batteries.
Giorgio Rizzoni, the Ford Motor Company Chair in ElectroMechanical Systems, is a Professor of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, and an Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at The Ohio State University. He received his B.S. (ECE) in 1980, his M.S. (ECE) in 1982, his Ph.D. (ECE) in 1986, all from the University of Michigan (UM). Between 1986 and 1990 he was a post-doctoral fellow, assistant research scientist and lecturer at UM. He joined the Ohio State University Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1990. He has held visiting positions at the Università di Bologna, Italy, the Swiss Federal Politechnic Institute (ETH), Zürich, Switzerland, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and Politecnico di Torino, Italy. He is a Guest Professor at Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui, China. Since 1999 he has been the director of the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research (CAR).
Dr. Rizzoni’s research interests are in system dynamics, measurements, control and fault diagnosis with application to automotive systems. He has a special interest in future ground vehicle propulsion systems, including advanced Diesel engines, electric and hybrid-electric drivetrains, advanced batteries, and fuel cell systems. He manages a personal research portfolio worth about $2M per year in these areas. He is the OSU site director and co-PI of the DOE Clean Energy Research Center on Clean Vehicles, in collaboration with the University of Michigan, MIT and several industry and national lab partners.
Prof. Rizzoni has contributed to the development of a graduate curriculum in these areas, and has served as the director of the U.S. Department of Energy Graduate Automotive Technology Education Center for Hybrid Drivetrains and Control Systems, and more recently Center for Advanced Propulsion System. He has developed undergraduate and graduate courses in system dynamics, mechatronics, fault diagnosis, powertrain dynamics and hybrid-electric vehicles. His book, Principles and Applications of Electrical Engineering, published by McGraw-Hill, is in the fifth edition and has been translated into seven languages.
Between 1993 and 2000 Prof. Rizzoni served as faculty advisor to the OSU Formula Lightning Team that won three ABB national championships with the Smokin’ Buckeye, an electric open-wheel race car. Since 1995 he has been advisor or co-advisor of numerous hybrid-electric vehicle design teams that have participated in the FutureCar, FutureTruck, ChallengeX, and EcoCAR competitions sponsored by GM, Ford and Chrysler and by the U.S. Department of Energy. Since 2000 he has been the advisor to the Buckeye Bullet team that set the EV U.S. land speed record at nearly 315 mph in October 2004 with a battery powered electric streamliner, the Buckeye Bullet. The same team has recently also established FIA flying-kilometer (303.025 mph) and flying-mile (302.877 mph) records for hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles with the Buckeye Bullet 2, and similar records (307 mph) for a li-ion battery powered version of the same vehicle.
Prof. Rizzoni is a Fellow of IEEE (2004), a Fellow of SAE (2005), a recipient of the 1991 National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, of the 1992 SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award; of the 1996 Stanley Harrison Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, of four College of Engineering Lumley Research Awards and of several other technical and teaching awards.
Dr. Rizzoni is a past Chair of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) Technical Committee on Automotive Control, and is on the Executive Committee of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. He has been an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (10 years) and for the ASME Transactions, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control (6 years).
