Clemson University Dept of Automotive Engineering

Another win for Dr. Zoran Filipi courtesy of 🏆 Dr. Filipi is the Director of the Clemson University School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, the Founding Director of the Clemson VIPR-GS Center, and our former Department Chair – but he keeps racking up the accomplishments wherever he goes! Dr. Filipi was just named this year’s ASME Internal Combustion Engine Award winner.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers wrote about choosing him as this year’s winner: “For pioneering research on the use of thermal barrier coatings to control heat transfer in homogenous charge compression ignition engines, innovative methodologies for model-based control, and engine-in-the-loop integration for real-world investigations of efficiency and emissions.”

Congratulations to Dr. Zoran Filipi on a well-deserved recognition and for leading by example from the top! 👏

What's better on a Solid Orange Friday than some gorgeous orange vehicles from past Supercharged Saturday car shows! And this year, you can bet we'll have even more orange rides on display 🟠

Supercharged Saturday 3 - our third annual car show - is set for Saturday, September 14th at the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville. Get your tickets at the link in our bio!

Greetings From the Deep Orange 15 Team at GVSETS! 👋🇺🇸

These recent graduates, assisted by faculty and staff, just wrapped up their time in Michigan, officially unveiling the semi-autonomous, optionally piloted remote rescue vehicle. GVSETS (Ground Vehicles Systems Engineering & Technology Symposium) is an annual event serving as a hub for scientists and engineers from government, academia, and industry to network and present research on modern military solutions.

The goal of this year’s conference was to explore technical areas that can support future formations and the digitization of the current and future Army. And the Deep Orange 15 vehicle fits that bill perfectly! Attendees and media members have been flocking the Clemson booth the past few days to get a look at this cutting-edge off-road rescue platform and to talk to the students who made it.

Amazing job to everyone involved on showcasing the tremendous talent and innovative projects that are produced within Automotive Engineering! Deep Orange - which is an internship option for our MS students and a senior capstone route for our BS students - continues to impress!

We are officially 1 MONTH AWAY from Supercharged Saturday 3! Join us Saturday, September 14th at the CU-ICAR campus for our annual car show featuring hundreds of the finest vehicles in the southeast, along with food trucks, live music, and raffle prizes. Get your tickets now at the link in our bio - current Clemson students, staff, and faculty get in free with a valid CUID at checkout! See you in a month!

Deep Orange 15 is here! 💥 We can now legally show the photos of this amazing remote rescue vehicle that students interning in our Deep Orange program have been building for nearly two years! Link to a full story on DO15 is in our bio 🔗

While the team officially unveiled it today at the GVSETS conference in Michigan, last week they welcomed family and friends to join in an unofficial unveil celebration pictured here. We’re proud to share the first ever public looks at Deep Orange 15: An innovative solution for post-disaster reconnaissance and support.

With sponsorship on the project from the Clemson VIPR-GS (Virtual Prototyping of Autonomy-Enabled Ground Systems) Center, the US Army’s DEVCOM GVSC (Ground Vehicle Systems Center), Brembo, Fox Racing, and North American Rescue, students built this advanced, high-speed, off-road, semi-autonomous, search and rescue vehicle. This project strived to improve rescue response times in extreme environments, while also minimizing personnel required for individual rescue operations. From tackling desert sands and boulders to urban rubble, this high-speed, optionally piloted vehicle with advanced driverless technology and a powerful propulsion configuration can traverse a myriad of terrains.

Specs on DO15 include 40 inch tires and 20 inches of wheel travel; LiDAR systems with real-time path planning and terrain analysis connected to Fox Factory’s LiveValve technology which dynamically adjusts the suspension damping in real-time based on terrain data; Series hybrid diesel engine (which doubles as a portable generator) ➡️ 19kWh battery pack, offering a total power output of 370kW through the drivetrain; Litter Loading Mechanism for more efficient and safe patient loading via slides, turntables, and swivels; Brembo Sensify Brake Torque Vectoring System for individual modulation of braking torque at each wheel.

…And many more features! Congrats to the entire team of students, support staff, and faculty who made this project a reality. Read the full write-up about the project at the link in our bio. More photos coming soon of DO15 and it’s official unveil at GVSETS!

These pics are tough 🥵🥵🥵 One of our BS students, .stuckert, sent these in featuring not only his Mustang, but a GT and a Shelby GT350 from some friends as well. Tell Max to bring his ride to Supercharged Saturday so we can see it in person, in all its glory 🔥

Whether your whip is modded and customized like Max’s, or whether you have a bone stock gas saver, we accept all makes and models for . DM us a photo of your ride in front of the CU-ICAR tower and we’ll feature you next!

Just Announced for Automotive Engineering Graduate Students 🚨 Thursday, September 5th, our friends from BMW will be at CU-ICAR to talk through their amazing internship opportunities. For undergraduates, you will have a team from BMW come later in the semester as well!

They say it’s not what you know, it’s who you know - in our department, we know all the big players and they know us! That’s why we can offer students access to amazing companies like this on a regular basis. More announcements to come soon! 👀

Still giving 👍 to our new graduates…

A few shots from graduation this past week where we had over 60 Tigers turn from students to alumni 🎓 We are proud of each one!

How it’s going ➡️ How it started

Congrats to the 61 students who graduated with their MS in Automotive Engineering today! From orientation 2022 (2nd photo) to today, they worked tirelessly to complete their coursework, complete an internship, and earn the degree they were bestowed today 🎓🎓🎓 We had both in person and online students earn their MS today, and for some of our cohort, this was their second degree from Clemson. Congratulations to all of them on a job well done! 🙌

All smiles for our new PhDs in Automotive Engineering! 🤩 Tonight at the doctoral hooding ceremony, three new graduates joined a select group of over 100 alumni who have obtained a doctorate in our field from Clemson. Rahul Prasanna Kumar (advised by Dr. Yunyi Jia), Shubhendu Kumar Singh (advised by Dr. Rahul Rai), and Shengli Xu (advised by Dr. Rahul Rai) were bestowed their PhD in AuE!

Many notice when students apply to begin a doctorate program - and of course well deserved adulation is given to students when they complete a doctorate like these three did. But what is not often noticed is the years of research, tons of coursework, and plentiful revisions that these students do in between these two moments. It’s here - when there is no limelight, no crowd, no applause - when the real doctoral work is done, often in solitude. It is a grueling and challenging experience, and to accomplish it, speaks to the perseverance of these graduates.

Congrats to these 3 for earning this terminal degree, we are so proud of you! 🐅

This is all we’re legally allowed to show from today’s Deep Orange 15 Appreciation event, but just wait until you set your eyes on how DO15 turned out 👀 Official unveil coming soon! Thanks again to all the students, faculty, staff, family, and friends who showed up for today’s event to get an extra early look at what our Deep Orange students have been building the last 2 years 👏

We have had some nice ‘Vettes the past couple of years at Supercharged Saturday. And we’re sure to see even more at Supercharged Saturday 3, happening on Saturday, September 14th at the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville! Whether you like Corvettes, Mustangs, or Challengers – or whether you love European brands, Japanese brands, old cars, new cars, trucks, electric vehicles or anything with wheels – we have it all at our annual car show event. Come for the cars, stay for the food, music, and prizes!

Get your tickets for Supercharged Saturday 3 at the link in our bio 🎟

The owner of this car, , didn’t know if he should submit for or not. So his friend submitted for him - A nice surprise gift for graduation this week! If you have a car you want featured on - or have a friend with a car who should be featured 😉 - DM us a photo of it in front of the CU-ICAR tower and we’ll show it off!

Olympians aren’t the only ones winning gold medals. We have some podium finishers of our own in our department – at the faculty, staff, and student level 😉 Thanks for having fun with us as we kick off another busy week in Automotive Engineering! 🥇🥈🥉

Shoutout to Dr. Laine Mears for consistently giving back to the community and helping the next generation of engineers ⚙️ This past week, Dr. Mears gave a keynote talk at the annual GREEN charter school summit hosted at Furman University. This is a network of 7 schools throughout SC (elementary, middle, and high) that do STEM education in a creative way.

If this Department Chair thing doesn’t work out, Dr. Mears has a backup plan of full time seminar speaker 😉 We love looking toward the future and sharing the success of our program with the leaders who help shape the students that may join our programs - and impact industry - in the next 10 to 20 years!

When you see all we have planned for August, but notice at the bottom all we have to get ready for in September 👀 The crazy time of year for the Department of Automotive Engineering begins now!

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks for staff in AuE full of greetings and farewells - Savannah Burke (first photo, right) concluded her time as our Undergraduate Student Services Coordinator, where she advised our BS students and helped lead our program through launch day and the growing pains that come with starting a new degree. She is off to pursue a PhD at UNC-Chapel Hill and we know she will do amazing things! To thank her for her amazing service, she got to take in some bowling (first photo) and a going away gift over lunch with the team (third photo) 📸

Stepping in as Undergraduate Student Services Coordinator is Chali Thompson (first photo, left), who we are thrilled to have on the team and who has already made great relationships with current and incoming students in her first month in AuE! She is a Clemson grad herself, is pursing a Master’s through Winthrop, and brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to advising our students. Welcome Chali, we’re so thankful to have you aboard! 👋

We also said hello this week to Jason Lewis (second photo) over lunch at Tipsy Taco 🌮 Jason just graduated from Clemson as well, and has worked as our Financial Business Manager for a few months. However this week, he relocated to his regular office space with us at CU-ICAR where he helps faculty with account budgets, and makes sure we don’t spend too much money 😉

It’s a season of bittersweet change, but for everyone involved, bright things are on the horizon! We are thankful to have the best team at Clemson, and look forward to working hard in the upcoming fall semester!

Can you believe we’re less that 3 weeks away from new graduate student orientation? 🤯 We’re ready to welcome our new MS and PhD students on Tuesday, August 20th at the Campbell Center in Greenville! We’ll have tons of guests with pertinent info, free food, and giveaways!

If you want to be a student who is participating in an orientation in the future, we have both fall and spring intake for grad students. You can apply online now at the link in our bio!

Don’t let it ever be said that AuE doesn’t know how to have fun! Shots from our staff bowling team building activity last week 🎳

AuE alumni has had quite the collection of vehicles! We’ve all heard about the legend of the cannonball run minivan (2nd slide), but his 1977 Dodge Dart station wagon is equally as impressive. He bought it in Mexico. Drove it straight to the CU-ICAR tower - over 1,300 miles - to snap a photo for ! Then a few months later, the station wagon did a NY to LA drive as part of the US Express 2023, timed at 39 hours, 13 seconds 😮

Also pictured in front of the tower is his Mitsubishi Evo which was also on display at the museum! When we say we have students who love cars - this is how much they love their cars! Thanks for sharing Senthil!

If you would like your ride featured for , just DM us here on Instagram and we’ll get you in the queue for a future post!

Friday CECAS Tours (𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘧𝘧’𝘴 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯) 💻Usually, the Friday tours on main campus are handled by our wonderful student ambassadors, but since there was just one this summer before they ramp back up every Friday in the fall, student services staff decided to take this one on today! Staff met with two large groups of prospective students and their families, presenting them info on our BS in Automotive Engineering and answering any questions.

We were thrilled to showcase all that our major has to offer to these current high school juniors and seniors, and will hopefully see them in an AUE class on main campus and at the CU-ICAR campus very soon!

What's under the hood? Take a look at some of the best shots of the powerplants in some of the vehicles at last year's Supercharged Saturday car show 📸 What will we see under the hoods (or the bonnets) this year? You have to get your ticket to find out!

Supercharged Saturday 3 is set for Saturday, September 14th at the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville! Tickets are available now at the link in our bio for both showing and attending. Those with a current CUID (students, faculty, staff) get in free to the show!

Our very own Dr. Saeed Farahani took home Best Paper Award at the ASME Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference! 🥇 This first place award was given to him for a paper he wrote with three others entitled "A Novel Concept to Manufacture Nano/Microcellular Foam Structures."

A version of this paper has been extended by one of our PhD students and Dr. Farahani's advisee Mahdi Pirani. That extended version was just accepted for publication in the ASME Journal of Micro and Nano-Manufacturing!

Top tier, award winning research - it's what is constantly produced from our department, and we are so proud of Dr. Farahani for bringing home the latest award!

When we talk about , this is what we mean 🤤🤤🤤 Checkout this clean 2019 BMW M4 CS belonging to Clemson student Nathan Chang in these amazing photos! These pics are on another level 📈

If you have a car you’d like be featured in , DM us a photo of it in front of the CU-ICAR tower and we’ll get it scheduled!

Been a while since we posted a vintage looking postcard highlighting how amazing it is to live here, but since Greenville was recently ranked in the Top 5 best places to live in the entire US, we figured it was time for another one 🌅

Greenville has gone from the textile capital of the world to a major hub of the automotive industry and manufacturing leader in the southeast in less than a century. We are proud to call it home for our graduate programs at the CU-ICAR campus, and a part-time home for our undergraduate students who spend time both here and on main campus Clemson 45 minutes away. We want all of our students to experience the amazing city of Greenville - so if you’re thinking of applying to our program, just know you’ll be coming to a vibrant, growing area with plenty of industry jobs, while still having the opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of big city life!

Just 🎱 more Saturdays until Supercharged Saturday is back on the CU-ICAR campus! Saturday, September 14th, we’ll be hosting the finest cars in the southeast along with food trucks, live music, and giveaways. Get your tickets to show or just attend at the link in our bio – and remember, Clemson students, staff, and faculty get in free with your CUID at checkout!

The countdown is on and Supercharged Saturday 3 is going to be bigger and better than ever 🐅

No running all the way across campus to get between our AUE classes for our new undergrads in the fall 🙌 They'll take AUE 2010 Human Factors in Lowry Hall, and then take a less than one minute stroll to the Watt Center for AUE 2020 Intro to Automotive Systems. You can't line up your course locations any better than that!

Now as far as the courses in other departments they have to take as part of our curriculum, we make no guarantees they won't have to walk further for those 😉

This fall, we look forward to teaching this new cohort of around 50 Automotive Engineering B.S. students in Lowry and Watt on main campus Clemson, and teaching our cohort from last year (the very first!) out at the CU-ICAR campus in Greenville for their junior level AUE coursework! Each undergraduate student - continuing or new - will soon receive a virtual toolkit outlining important info, tips, and maps, for navigating both campuses, and locations of important things like food, advisors, and parking at both locations. This virtual toolkit will help students succeed and be prepared for the first day of class!

🔔 New video just dropped on our YouTube channel, highlighting the work of our very own Dr. Behnaz Papari and her research on cyber-physical security applications for the automotive sector and beyond. Link for this video is now in our bio! 🔗

As vehicles become more connected to each other and digital frameworks, new strategies and technologies are needed to thwart intrusions into vehicle safety systems, autonomy systems, charging systems on electric vehicles, and more. This research conducted by Dr. Papari and colleagues also has significance for military applications as well. Thanks to PhD student Luke Shannon for producing this video – it is full of fantastic insight into the latest happenings here in AuE, and gives a glimpse as to some of the research that might be of interest to prospective students thinking of joining our program!

this week brought to you by an incoming AuE undergraduate student and a 2023 AuE alumni 📸 Everyone is welcome to submit a photo - students, staff, faculty, or just fans of automotive engineering! DM us a pic of your ride in front of the CU-ICAR tower and you’ll be featured like Anthan and Jonatas’ rides this week. We always love to see trucks and SUVs getting in on the action!

On Friday, Student Services staff Heather and Jeremiah got to speak once again to the Gen>NEXT Students at BMW Plant Spartanburg as part of their 4StudentsByStudents group! 🎤 This group meets to provide current BMW student interns with different speakers, information, and development. And Clemson Automotive Engineering has now had the chance the past couple of semesters to speak to the cohort about our graduate level programs. The presentation went well and we were excited to meet several students - some from Clemson, some from other US institutions, and some from international locations - interested in pursuing graduate degrees with us! 🐅

We have a long partnership with BMW and are always thrilled to go speak to this group! We appreciate current BMW interns (and current CU students) Gabriel Peter, Sean Eoon, and Robbie Rucker for inviting us and setting this up. We look forward to next time!