DRIVEN BY DESIGNERS
University of Windsor vehicle designers take aim at Project Arrow
Vision of vehicle turns heads
University of Windsor fine arts student Bianca Daher generally hasn’t given much thought to cars beyond wondering if there’s one available in the family driveway.
However, the Windsor native, along with fellow students Graeme Barkway and Parker Drouillard, have spent much of the past three months designing what they hope will become the first all-canadian, zero-emission vehicle.
The trio’s submission is one of nine being considered this week for the three finalists spots in the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association’s Project Arrow competition.
“Not having any experience with cars definitely helped,” Daher said.
“I wasn’t influenced by other people’s designs. I had to come up with my own design concepts.”
There are also entries from Carleton University, B.C.’S Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Centennial College and five entries from Humber College’s Transportation Design program.
The designs can’t be released until after the APMA announces the designs advancing to Phase II in the next seven days.
“Anything over five submissions we’d have been happy with because design courses are very limited in Canada,” said APMA chief technical officer Colin Singh Dhillon, who added the winning design will be road-ready for 2022.
“Windsor isn’t known as a design school. It has a reputation for automotive engineering, so we’re very pleased to get a submission from the school.”
Singh Dhillon said the judging panel drawn from industry experts will be looking for concept originality, emotional impact of design, micro mobility and tech options, using lightweight materials and repurposing older materials, minimum Level 3 autonomy, electrification and the vehicle has to capture some essence of Canadian culture.
The three finalists will get industry support to develop their engineering and technical concepts to the CAD file stage, allowing for requests for proposals from suppliers.
The winning submission will be announced in September.
Daher said she leaned heavily on Barkway, an automotive engineering student from Moose Jaw, and Windsor native Drouillard, a computer science student, for the engineering and technical details of the vehicle’s design.
The trio worked against a compressed timeline, never meeting in person because of COVID-19.
“It really took me out of my comfort zone,” Daher said.
“It worked because Graeme and Parker are great guys, who were quick to get back to me on ideas and who were honest.
“I think we’ve come up with something that’s a touch futuristic, with a real Canadian feel to it.”
Drouillard, a self-confessed “Tesla geek,” relished the chance of tackling the APMA’S goal of producing an all-canadian vehicle that highlights the nation’s capabilities in advanced manufacturing, design and technology.
“What we’ve came up with is a modular design,” he said. “It’s a skateboard platform with five design applications.
“Its goal is to be affordable for the masses and suited for Canadians’ needs and environment.”
The platform can be used for everything from a cargo van to SUV to sports car.
Drouillard expressed cautious optimism about the trio’s chances, but said advancing to Phase II would help show Windsor has a depth of talent capable of producing a homegrown car.
“It definitely helped us think outside of the box,” Drouillard said of the trio’s diverse backgrounds. “Graeme and I are both car guys, but I just didn’t have the design background.”
Among the APMA’S challenges was to incorporate many of the technological demands consumers are making on automakers. All the vehicle entries include scooters and drones while the Windsor submission uses wheel motors, eliminating the need for a braking system.
“They’ve bowled me over,” said Peter Frise, the university’s director of the Centre for Automotive Research and Education and the trio’s mentor.
“They’ve got a unique design that touches on five different market segments. That allows you to amortize development costs of over potentially more sales, making it realistic to manufacture.”