Co-organizers:

• Technology Transfer Society, Washington Chapter (T2SDC.org) 
• Southeastern Universities Research Association 
• George Washington University - Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer & Commercialization 
• The Federal Laboratory Consortium 
• The Angel Investors of Greater Washington (AIoGW.org) 
• The Entrepreneur Center @ The Northern Virginia Technology Council 
• Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) 
• Montgomery County Department of Economic Development (SmartMontgomery.com) 
• Rockville Economic Development, Inc. 

Speaker: Robert P. Larsen, Director Emeritus
          Center for Transportation Research
          Argonne National Laboratory

Registration: Free, but registration is required.
Register at: http://lab2ipo.org/RSVP/ [Case sensitive]
 

Presentation Abstract:
This presentation discusses the use of a prize competition and a sporting competition to advance the development, demonstration, and transfer of advanced automotive technology.  The author is closely involved with both the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize, a $10 million prize competition to develop production-capable 100 MPG vehicles, and the Green Challenge Award sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and SAE International in the 2009 American Le Mans Series international sports car racing events. Mr. Larsen's talk will encompass the philosophy and structure of these competitions on opposite ends of the vehicle racing continuum as well and the technologies affected and results expected from these examples of employing racing to accelerate the transfer of technologies to the marketplace.

The Speaker:
Robert P. (Bob) Larsen is the Director Emeritus for Argonne National Laboratory’s Center for Transportation Research (CTR), a group of over 100 scientists and engineers working on a wide range of advanced vehicle and fuel technologies for the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) transportation technology development programs. Bob served as Director of CTR from 2000 to 2006 and was responsible for a major expansion of the Center’s facilities, staff, and budget. His new role focuses on developing the Green Racing initiative, overseeing the EcoCAR Challenge (a major new international collegiate advanced vehicle technology competition), establishing collaborative research programs in advanced bio-fuel engines, and other new programs for DOE and Argonne. 

Some of the programs Bob has worked on and managed at Argonne include:

• hybrid electric vehicle and electric drive powertrain development;
• advanced engine research and exhaust emissions control technologies;
• alternative fuels and their infrastructure requirements;
• hydrogen-fueled vehicle development and testing and hydrogen infrastructure planning;
• well-to-wheels energy and emissions life cycle assessments; and
• vehicle simulation, fleet composition, energy consumption modeling, and energy policy.

Bob was elected to the Board of Directors of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International from 1998 to 2001, is a frequent session and conference organizer, and is active on several SAE technical committees. He is the lead author of an industry standard for Green Racing called J2880 recently published by SAE International. He is on the Editorial Board of the World Electric Vehicle Association Journal and on several Advisory Boards for collegiate automotive educational programs. A two-time winner of Argonne’s Pacesetter Award and a recipient of a national Technology Transfer Award, Bob has worked at Argonne National Laboratory for twenty nine years.

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