There and Back Again: An HEVT Tale

Phew. What a trip.

Over the long weekend, we were hosted by MathWorks in Natick, MA, for the EcoCAR 2 Fall Workshop. In total, we participated in approximately 26 hours of workshops, trainings and seminars — all to prepare us for an amazing year.

Team and subteam leaders were set upon individual tracks according to their area of work. Engineers had training with software such as Matlab, Simulink, QNX and Vector to name a few. Business and communications reviewed competition deliverables and worked through product management, sponsor relations, media relations and video production classes.

“Since we mainly operate as a senior-design project, Fall Workshop is vital to bringing our new subteam leaders up to speed,” said team leader, Eli White. “It gives a crash course in these complicated software programs that our team will use throughout the year.”

As Eli said, we have 22 new team members that need to get acclimated to the competition and learn how to effectively use these technologies. Overcoming this learning curve early in the semester is essential to our success in Year 3. As expected, this feat does not come without its challenges.

“I was really interested in working with this big-time software since I had limited experience with it,” said controls subteam leader, Billy Dvorkin. “I was a little overwhelmed in the beginning, but the Matlab training at Fall Workshop has given me a ground foundation of skills to build on.”

Lucas Shoults speaks with GM representatives.

Don’t get us wrong, we weren’t training the whole time. Thursday night we attended a sponsor social to network with sponsoring companies in the hopes of jobs and internships. Saturday evening we got a chance to go into Boston and have a dinner at the Cheers Boston restaurant near the famed Faneuil Hall. It was great to sight see a bit and relax after three full days of training. 

We want to thank our host MathWorks again for their continued support with EcoCAR 2 and a great Fall Workshop. 

It’s now time get down to business and put our new-found knowledge to test. Get ready for some upcoming build updates as we begin to refine our precious Mary the Malibu.