Winners have been determined Hankook’s recently completed “Tire Design for the Future Environment” competition that took place in conjunction with the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP).
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The contest included third-year UC industrial design students and was conducted from January through March.
Students were asked to create new tire designs based on their own visions of future cars; sustainability needs, such as reducing and reusing raw materials used in tire production; and the importance of increasing tire efficiency and meeting specific tire performance targets.
The winners, in ranked order, were:
1. Ben Zavala from Pittsburgh for his TILTRED tilting tire design;
2. Mark Hearn of Fremont, Calif., for his Motive Off-Road tire design; and
3. Miranda Steinhauser of Gahanna, Ohio, for her TESSELA tire design.
“Hankook Tire was a tremendous sponsoring partner and we are truly grateful to have been selected to participate,” says Raphael Zammit, UC’s associate professor of practice and coordinator of industrial design.
“Our students were given the opportunity to not only understand the importance of tire designs in the overall efficiency, ecology and economy of road-bound transportation but also to apply their classroom knowledge in a real world situation for advanced learning and increased experience,” he reports.
The contest centered on the importance that design is to the overall efficiency, ecology and economy for road-bound tires. As the competition’s name implies, students were also encouraged by Hankook to consider the positive aspects that sustainability needs, such as reducing and reusing raw materials used in tire production, and increased tire efficiency can make on the environment.
The top three winning designs are currently undergoing patent approval and will be showcased at this fall’s Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas as part of Hankook’s booth display.
“We were pleased to work with the University of Cincinnati’s College of DAAP, a world class industrial design institution, who, like Hankook, places a premium on learning, investment in its people, and innovation,” says Calvin Pak, the company’s general manager of marketing strategy.
“As a leading tire manufacturer we were excited to offer students from a leading institution a chance to explore not only their potential, but the potential of future tire design as well,” he adds.
Hankook’s decision to work with UC comes from the school’s highly rated industrial design program. The university’s Industrial Design program is currently ranked as the No. 1 undergraduate industrial design program in the country by Design Intelligence, an institution that ranks design, art and architecture colleges, according to Pak.
Students also have the opportunity to take part in the university’s co-op program which requires them to work every other quarter within the field of their study, providing “a strong foundation in the realistic demands of the industries they will enter.”
For more information, visit www.hankooktireusa.com.
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