Think3 Announces Winner of the PDP Award Andrea Pininfarina Competition

By DE Editors

Think3 Inc. announced the results of its PDP Award Andrea Pininfarina competition in collaboration with Pininfarina Spa and Politecnico di Milano. The worldwide competition was open to product and transportation design students and faculty members from institutes and universities.

Think3 narrowed the entries down to three projects: an environmentally friendly sports car by NATS (Nihon Automobile College), The Ecohc-sh3-EV,  and The MAG Project. The projects were evaluated and ranked by a panel of judges.

The winner of the competition is NATS, a college specializing in the study of mechanical engineering of automobiles and motorcycles in Japan. The design project was completed on ThinkDesign 3D software. The key team members involved in the project are Ryuto Watanabe, Keita Yashiro, Yoshiyuki Tanigawa, Daisuke Kitagawa, Junya Kimura,  with Watanabe leading the NATS project. The students completed the project while learning the software in a short span of time.

The winning project is an electric vehicle. For the first model, a lead battery makes the size of box-shaped frame bigger than when lithium-ion battery is installed. In the future, the size of frame could be minimized. NATS has worked on the PDP process while designing the car and covers the contest criteria for mass production.

The second ranking goes to The Ecohc-sh3-EV Project by a multifunctional group of students from Mexican ITESM (Instituto Tecnologico Y De Estudios Superiores De Monterrey) Campus Léon. The Ecohc-sh3-EV is designed for senior citizens with physical disabilities that prevent them from performing everyday activities.

The third ranking goes to The MAG a Green Innovative Project by Samuel Cortes, a student from Universidad Autonoma de Colombia. The MAG CAR has solar panels and magnetic security technology. The panels have been designed for high solar absorption. In addition to being a hybrid car that runs on gasoline and solar power, MAG would be the first car that develops technology for superconducting magnetic security.

“We are pleased to announce NATS as the winner of the PDP Award Andrea Pininfarina competition and the successful completion of these projects being worked on ThinkDesign,” says Silvano Joly, executive vice president of marketing for think3. “The competition was launched to celebrate our 30th anniversary and to honor the great business leader of Turin,  the late Mr. Andrea Pininfarina. We are thrilled with the response we got from the product and transportation design students, and we hope to conduct more such events to educate and generate awareness among the design community.”

The award consists of a week-long training session in Europe. The NATS team will visit the R&D centers of think3 in Italy and France and have the opportunity to increase their product development skills and knowledge. NATS will also be able to visit the Pininfarina Collection at Cambiano for a journey through the company’s history.

For more information, visit think3,  Inc.

Sources:  Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.