I've been a car nut ever since I took my first ride in a baby buggy (at a very, very early age). There was just something about rolling wheels that I found intriguing. Over time that interest grew into suspensions, engines, drive trains and automotive styling…cars in general became a passion of mine. But just hearing the words physics and calculus gave me severe heartburn, so automotive engineering was not in the cards—until there was Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).
Right down the road from our office in Greenville, CU-ICAR has one of the coolest university campuses on the planet. This highly innovative institution—just seven years young—has already gained prominence as one of the top 10 automotive engineering schools in the U.S. It is clearly not your father's automotive engineering school.
With its unique educational culture, CU-ICAR is creating an entirely new species of automotive engineer who is much more than just a gearhead…he/she is an engineer that's a gearhead and a PhD.
The CU-ICAR program not only teaches about vehicle technology (mechanics, power plant, electronics, ergonomics, etc.), it engages students in every facet of vehicle technology through a total systems integration approach. For example, part of the automotive engineering program is called Deep Orange. Deep Orange implements an "engineering studio" approach to teaching by immersing the students in an OEM setting. Cross disciplinary faculty, students and participating industry partners team up to produce a new vehicle prototype each year. Students benefit from getting hands-on experience in vehicle design, engineering, development, prototyping, production and implementation.
At Jackson Marketing Group, we have been privileged to help CU-ICAR merchandise their strong R&D capabilities and students to the automotive industry. Most recently, we were asked to develop a new ad to convey the school's unwavering automotive passion and unique systems integration approach. Our creative team chose to use a very simple DNA metaphor that could double as a high-tech roadway to grab attention and get readers to visit the website. This ad recently won a BMA award and is the first in a series appearing in Automotive News.
So, after all these years, it's exciting to have the opportunity to work closely with a top-ranked automotive engineering school (without having to worry about all those formulas and equations).