Submitted By: Coastline ROP

The first Performance Engineering Project was launched between Orange County ROPs and UC Irvine’s School of Engineering. During the 2011-12 school year, Professor Michael McCarthy, the director of the Center for Engineering Science at UCI, initiated this countywide project and connected high school and college students who became immersed in performance engineering with the goal of qualifying for and competing in what is now an annual event.

The UCI Energy Invitational challenges students to design and build an energy-efficient customized mini vehicle that will compete in the invitational. The challenge: How far can the vehicle travel on one dollar’s worth of fuel?

The college and high school students learn from each other and compete in separate divisions. Coastline ROP students excelled in the first competition and took all three top places in the overall ranking!