OSRAM Sylvania, the world's leading manufacturer of automotive lighting and College for Creative Studies (CCS), one of the world's preeminent schools of transportation design announced the kick-off of the first annual OSRAM Automotive Lighting Design Challenge on Oct. 8, 2009.
The 2009 OSRAM Automotive Lighting Design Challenge is designed to help educate future transportation designers on the many benefits of advanced LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting technologies and the design freedom they offer.
"LEDs are poised to change the way automotive designers think about automotive exterior lighting," said David Hulick, global product marketing manager at OSRAM Sylvania for its automotive LED systems division. "They are extremely energy efficient, environmentally-friendly and the size and format of the technology frees up designers to think outside the conventional lighting design box."
The OSRAM Automotive Lighting Design Challenge will run concurrently with the CCS fall curriculum for second year students in the university's Transportation Design program. Contest entrants will design a concept for a forward lighting application using OSRAM Sylvania LED technologies.
Students will be able to connect with OSRAM Sylvania lighting engineers through a special Facebook page set up specifically for that purpose.
The Design Challenge will be judged by a diverse panel including renowned automotive designers, Pat Schiavone, North American Truck & SUV Design Director for Ford Motor Company, and Bob Boniface, Director of GM's Advanced Design Studio. They will be joined by representatives from OSRAM Sylvania and Tier One lighting manufacturers.
The entries will be judged on creative execution of the design and the innovative use of the technology. The top three will be awarded a total of $5,000 in scholarships; $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place and $500 for third place.
The winning entries will be unveiled during the Lighting Design Challenge awards ceremony to be held the first week of December at CCS's prestigious A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education, an integrated learning community dedicated to creativity located in Detroit's New Center in what was formerly General Motors engineering and design center, the Argonaut Building.
"We are pleased that OSRAM Sylvania has chosen to partner with CCS for their Automotive Lighting Design Challenge," said Larry Erickson, Paul and Helen Farago Chair of Transportation Design at CCS. "This is not only a chance for students to build relationships with the automotive suppliers they'll one-day be working with, but also affords the opportunity to experience the exciting new technologies that they will use to shape the future of transportation design."