Air Runner Concept – Second Place
Eric Sun won the Second Grand Award – a scholarship valued at $3000 – for his aerodynamically efficient Air Runner concept. Designed for fully autonomous high-speed, long-range commuting, the concept’s dual-mode design is ultra aerodynamic.
Sun incorporated many uses of plastics, including shape memory polymers to allow the body to conform to aerodynamic efficiencies. He also used thermoplastic composites to ensure a strong lightweight body, which allowed for one larger door to ease ingress and egress.
The use of electrochromic plastics allow the cabin to blend into the upper body for a private and seamless aesthetic, while the upper body can switch back again from a solid color for privacy to a clear transparent for enhanced visibility.
Transit Integrated Motive (TIM) – Third Place
The Third Grand Award was presented to Axel Kurkjian for his luxury transport system, the Transit Integrated Motive (TIM). The TIM is a system of customized pods with a shared platform. The fully autonomous vehicle and can be owned privately or made accessible to the public. Individual pods are available for single passengers as are larger pods for two to four passengers.
The pod interiors are customized through 3D printing while advanced reinforced plastics are used for the vehicle frame and other structures. Polycarbonate materials are used to enable full touch screen interaction capability and external displays.
Other Awards
SABIC also presented two $500 Art Center scholarships, one to Iljung Jeong and another to Jaesung Kim. Jeong received the Design Leadership award for his strong work ethic, proactive nature and eagerness to apply what he had learned, while Kim was recognized with the Vehicle Emblem award for creating the winning Design for Alpha logo, which was a competition among all students.
“In Design for Alpha, [the students’] imaginations went into overdrive as they embraced the design freedom of thermoplastics and opened their minds to new shapes, functions and all kinds of possibilities,” said Scott Fallon, general manager, automotive, SABIC’s Innovative Plastics business. “We hope this experience has helped these young designers – future leaders within our customers’ design studios – understand that it can be very powerful when they’re thinking about material and process from the early stages of any creative project.”
We’ll be bringing you a report on the other projects in the SABIC/Art Center Design for Alpha competition next week.
