What can we do about global warming that can really make a difference? How can we really reduce automobile carbon emissions? What does the vehicle of the future look like? That's what Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students Anna Jaffe, Nii Armar, and Robyn Allen asked themselves when they founded the Vehicle Design Summit (VDS) in 2006. Six years and several experimental vehicles later, the group has grown into a global collective of designers, engineers, and specialists of every sort, representing nearly every continent (with the exception of Antarctica.) Collectively, they have built vehicles that achieve 200mpg(e) on alternative fuels. Their latest prototype vehicle called ArchiMITes, with its ability to change between different fuel systems and car bodies, will serve as a platform to develop modular vehicle parts. This leads into the 10^5 Competition, the next big project for the Vehicle Design Summit. Projected for 2013-14, the10^5 Competition which will leverage innovation around the world in an effort to build out 100,000 permutations of possible modular cars, each with the minimum fuel efficiency goal set by the XPrize: 100mpg(e).
Sponsored by GE, film distributors Focus Forward Films and Cinelan launched the Focus Forward Film Competition in April 2012. Their call for submissions: short films on innovators and inventors changing the world for the better was an opportunity that ASKlabs absolutely could not pass up -- our passion is making films about exactly this! After months of research, we thought Anna and crew fit the bill perfectly. So we spent a day in August filming at VDS headquarters: MIT's Edgerton Center.
Many thanks to Anna, Nii, and Mitsu Shinomiya for participating in front of the camera and to the following who participated behind the camera: Director of Photography Stephen McCarthy, Editor Stephanie Munroe, Animator Alex Hogan, Composer P. Andrew Willis, Audio Mix Eric Masunaga at Modulus, Post-Production Consultant: Gabriele de Simone, with thanks to Murray Robinson, Camilla Brinkman, and Alison Hynd.
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