December 21, 2024

Auto Department hosts Odyssey

USU Eastern’s Automotive Department is hosting the second annual Odyssey: National Alternative Fuels Day on Friday, Oct. 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Macdonald Career Center parking lot. Its theme is a Decade of Difference: Driving Change Across America.
Odyssey is a biennial outreach event dedicated to promoting the use of alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles, says Stan Martineau, automotive assistant professor.

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USU Eastern’s Automotive Department is hosting the second annual Odyssey: National Alternative Fuels Day on Friday, Oct. 12 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Macdonald Career Center parking lot. Its theme is a Decade of Difference: Driving Change Across America.
Odyssey is a biennial outreach event dedicated to promoting the use of alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles, says Stan Martineau, automotive assistant professor.
In addition to alternative fuel vehicles, demonstrations on fuel cell, solar and wind energy, waveform patterns, diagnostics, and five-gas analysis (showing the difference in vehicle emission particulates between older and new vehicles) will be presented.
Information will be available on low resistance “green” tires and energy efficient oil.
West Virginia University provides the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium that provides the nucleus of the program. Martineau is a contributing writer for the consortium.
Martineau said the governor’s office is sending a representative to the event as well as other local, regional and state representatives. Displays include a Chevrolet with an electric Volt, Toyota with a hybrid Prius, Ford with vehicle information including their new electric Focus, Utah Clean Cities Coalition, EPA (what they do and why), Questar with CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles and information, Les Schwab (green tires and energy savings tips) and CarQuest with energy saving tips.
Demonstrations on fuel cells and biodiesel will be provided by USU Eastern students throughout the day.
Martineau said the day should be a great fit for the science, technology and engineering students (STEM) plus career exploration opportunities. Junior high and high school students from Southeast Utah will attend the demonstrations.