At ARPA-E, we use many ways to look for seeds of ideas.
We came across this
company called Local Motors that
specializes in online design challenges, using sort of a mixture of amateur 
plus professional and knowledge 
to connect to the innovative approaches. 
So the bigger issue we're trying to address is about improving the fuel economy of vehicles.
Our goal is really to set up the challenge and then let the imagination begin.
The LITECAR challenge is meant to create
an ultra lightweight vehicle while still
maintaining today's safety standards.
We received about 254 entries,
ranging anywhere from 
new materials for doors, all the way to
entire vehicle restructures, redesigns.
There was a constant theme amongst a lot of the entries that 
included 3D printing or additive
manufacturing. 
A lot of the entries used hybrid vehicles or  electric motors with battery packs
to help minimize
vehicle mass as well as enabled novel
architectures for vehicle design.
The grand prize winner came to us from
IUPUI. Assistant Professor Andres Tovar
in mechanical engineering and his graduate students
submitted pretty much the entire package
that we were looking for. They started with the overall 
objectives of creating a lightweight and ultra-strong
vehicle.  They created effectively an exoskeleton. This exoskeleton
is an aluminum frame that was 3D
manufactured that protects the internal
occupants of the vehicle.
This challenge actually exemplifies 
the role of ARPA-E that is to look at the futuristic ideas.  
It's a space we can play. 
This is a whole new exercise to completely re-imagine what the LITECAR could be.   
These challenges tried to achieve both at the same time. 
Light, while safe. 
