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UCR Today: New News, New Look. Go!

A team of engineers that developed IntelliShare, an automated electric car-sharing program at the University of California, Riverside, has been named a finalist in the Discover magazine 2001 Innovation Awards.

The awards, highlighted in the current issue of Discover, honor scientists whose cutting-edge innovations have the potential to become common technologies. Awards and finalists are named in the categories of aerospace, communications, electronics, entertainment, environment, health and transportation.

IntelliShare, named a finalist in the transportation category, is a fleet of 15 Honda electric cars used by some 300 UCR faculty, students and staff for short trips around and near the campus. The Bourns College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) developed the system in cooperation with Honda R&D in 1999 to demonstrate the potential of car-sharing for easing traffic congestion and reducing air pollution.

The vehicles are currently available at three locations on campus. Members of the system use an automated, touch-screen computer and smart card to check out a vehicle for travel to another station or to do an errand. Use of the vehicles is free for the first 15 minutes, with nominal per-minute charges accruing after 15 minutes. More than 37,000 trips have been completed to date, with the system averaging about 100 trips per day.

CE-CERT engineers, led by Matt Barth, UCR associate professor of electrical engineering, plan to expand the system to include 25 cars and five stations.

The University of California, Riverside (www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion.

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