2004 Canadian International AutoShow
2004 World Automotive Design Competition sponsored by Alias
The Future of Design Starts Here

WINNERS ANNOUNCED
BRITAIN, CHINA and KOREA SHARE TOP HONOURS

February 12, 2004

Britain's School of Art & Design at Coventry University in England, as well as Tsinghua University in Beijing, China were the big winners here today, together garnering seven of the eight prizes, handed out at the press conference announcing all winners in the third annual World Automotive Design Competition, sponsored by Alias, and hosted by the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Students from twenty (20) distinguished design schools from China, Brazil, Japan, France, Korea, England, Wales, Italy, Spain, India, Sweden, the USA and Canada competed to win over US$140,000 in prizes.

Coventry won in four of the eight categories as follows: Leon Comben, a 3rd year Transportation Design student won the overall grand prize of US$10,000 for his innovative portrayal of what a Land Rover would look like in the year 2015; Blake Cotterrill, also a 3rd year student in the same faculty, won the second place overall prize of US$5,000 as well as the Ballard Power System's Best Application of Technology award for his 2015 rendition of a red London double-decker bus; while Coventry University itself won the prestigious "Best Design School" award, sponsored by IBM, over 19 other schools from around the globe.

Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea was again in the winner's circle this year. Two students, Bum-Seok and Ahn Kwang-Hoon, from their Department of Industrial Design were the first place winners for the Alias Best Presentation Award. They have won the company's top of the line AutoStudio valued at US $72,000

Four design students from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China won both second and third place in the Alias Best Presentation awards. Wang Xiao-long received the company's Studio package valued at US $32,000 while the team comprised of Chen Xiao, Xu Zheng, Yu Dan together won the third place prize of Alias' DesignStudio valued at US $14,500.

Full details, and quotes from all winners in all eight prize categories follow.

Ninety-four of the world's future leaders in automotive design submitted sixty-six entries, representing twenty internationally recognized transportation design schools. Either individual students or teams were asked to take a popular vehicle that has been manufactured and well-loved in their own country and project it to the year 2015.

Their 2015 design needed to predict the needs of the local market, and, at the same time, reflect emerging propulsion and manufacturing technologies of the country where the students' live or study.

The students' innovative solutions to this year's challenge, were judged by some of the world's foremost authorities on automotive design, representing an impressive array of critics, historians, academics, design media, and past and present active production and concept car designers.

The judging panel included, in alphabetical order:
Robert Cumberford (Automobile and Auto & Design magazines)
Paul Deutschman (Canadian independent designer of the Callaway car series and Porsche Spexter)
Akira Fujimoto (Chief Editor, Car Styling magazine)
Ken Gross (Automotive Industries and The Robb Report magazines; Chief Class Judge Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance)
Peter Horbury (North American Head of Design, Ford Motor Company)
Tom Matano (Director, Industrial Design Department, Academy of Art College, San Francisco, and former VP - Design, Mazda Motor Corporation)

The twenty design schools were, in alphabetical order: Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, USA), College for Creative Studies (Detroit, USA), Coventry School of Art and Design (Coventry, Great Britain), Cr¨¦apole (Paris, France), Funda??o Armando ¨¢lvares Penteado (S?o Paulo, Brasil), Hong Ik University (Seoul, Korea), Humber College (Toronto, Canada), Istituto Europeo di Design (Torino, Italy), Istituto Europeo di Design (Barcelona, Spain), Musashino Art University (Tokyo, Japan), National Institute of Design (Ahmedebad, India), Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), School of Industrial Design, Swansea Institute (Swansea, Wales), Seoul National University of Technology (Seoul, Korea), Strate College Designers (Paris, France), Tokyo Zokei University, (Tokyo, Japan), Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), Umea Institute of Design (Umea, Sweden), Universit¨¦ de Montr¨¦al (Montreal, Canada), and the University of Tsukuba (Tsukuba, Japan).

THE WINNERS
Photographs of the winners, judges and sponsors at the press conference are available on our media web site and can be downloaded in either high and low resolution.

FIRST PLACE : First prize of US$10,000 went to Leon Comben, School of Art & Design, Coventry University, UK

The judges stated that Comben's design was "Well thought out, thorough, redo of a British icon. It captures everything Land Rover's have done for a half-century and more. "

They added that his entry reconfirms the fact that "car" is a "moving machine".

Leon Comben flew in from Coventry in the UK to accept the award in person from competition judge Robert Cumberford. How did Comben feel when he first heard the news? "Complete disbelief (for about a week). I don't think words can do justice to the feeling I had when the call came through. I can only compare it to the jubilation a person must feel when they win the lottery and the realization hits that this could be potentially life changing. Mind blowing to say the least."

When asked what are his career objectives, Comben's replied: "Call it coincidence, but the dream would be to become a Computer Aided Industrial Designer operating Alias Autostudio."

What will he do with the US$10,000 prize money? "First and foremost, if the opportunity of a placement comes up, I will use part of the money to help with the cost of housing / food, etc., whilst away from university. Secondly, I would invest in some more Autostudio Tutorials, and finally I would save as much as possible to put towards my final degree show in 2005."

SECOND PLACE: Second prize of US$5,000 went to Blake Cotterill, School of Art & Design, Coventry University, UK. Blake also won the Ballard Power Systems "Best Application of Technology Award".

The judges felt that Cotterill's London red double-decker bus "fit the design brief well. It was a realistic attempt to change their city's transportation."

THIRD PLACE: Third prize of US$2,500.00 went to Won-Kyu Kang from the Art Centre College of Design in Pasadena, USA.

The judges commented that Kang's entry was "a good reinterpretation of an American icon showing flexible use of road space and utility." They added that "the Model T was a simple universal concept that has bee updated in a fresh way."

ALIAS BEST PRESENTATION AWARDS
The "Alias? Best Presentation Award" was inaugurated in 2003 to reward the student with the best computer generated presentation. This year, in celebration of the company's 20th anniversary as the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology and automotive design, Alias has generously expanded the award to include first, second, and third place prizes.

"Alias believes that investing in students, helping them to expand their skills and knowledge, is critical in maintaining the automotive design industry's high standard of excellence," said Thomas Heermann, Product Manager, Design Products, Alias. "We are eager supporters of the World Automotive Design Competition, a pivotal forum for developing the finest talents of future automotive designers."

The first place winner are Seo Bum-Seok and Ahn Kwang-Hoon from Hong-IK University in Seoul, Korea. Both Seo Bum-Seok and Ahn Kwang-Hoon won the company's top of the line AutoStudioTM software valued at US$72,000.

The judges chose the entry entitled "Swim and Run" because "every design element was well represented: sketches, photos, drawings. All showed a fine undertanding of the Alias technology with a whimsical element." They added, "not only does 'Swim and Run' follow the design brief beautifully, but it is a terrific novel design."

The second place winner, Wang Xiao-long , from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China received Alias StudioTM package software valued at US$32,000 for his entry entitled "Start".

The judges praised "the good balance of the unique shape and the power of expression". They added, "This is clever and shows a good understanding of the computer software in a variety of illustrated methods."

The third place winner were a team of students, Chen Xiao, Xu Zheng, and Yu Dan from Tsinghua Univeristy in Beijing who received the Alias DesignStudioTM package (US$14,500).

The judges said that strictly speaking the entry did not conform to the design brief. However, their entry entitled "Desert Cruiser" was one of the best computer generated renderings. "Truly excellent computer generated work".

In addition, to their respective software packages, all winners receive copies of Alias' PortfolioWall and ImageStudio software.

The three awards from Alias were presented by Peter Mehlstaeubler, Vice-President, Product Development.

BALLARD BEST APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGY AWARD
The winner of this award is Blake Cotterill, a 3rd year transportation design student from Coventry University's School of Art & Design in England. How did he feel on hearing the news of his win? "I felt shear delight at this wonderful news. This was a very fantastic day. Not only did I get to enter the competition (as a result of an internal Coventry competition) but I had also won a prize!

Cotterill added: "I'm looking forward to traveling and to visiting the Ballard facilities. This will be my first time outside of the UK."

Ballard Power Systems, the world leader in the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology, created the new technology award to acknowledge the student that most accurately depicted, and incorporated into their 2015 design, emerging propulsion and manufacturing technologies from the country where they live or study.

Mr. Dennis Campbell, President and CEO of Ballard, said "the design competition provides an excellent opportunity for students from leading design schools to design purpose built platforms that optimize the technologies of tomorrow, including fuel cells. We look forward to welcoming Blake Cotterill to and showing him the future of clean, quiet and efficient power generation.

As sponsor, Ballard Power Systems is offering Cotterill an all expense paid trip to one of Ballard's facilities where he/she will have an opportunity to tour the facilities, meet with staff and receive Ballard's fuel cell education package on CD, currently being offered to universities worldwide.

IBM "BEST DESIGN SCHOOL" AWARD
Twenty (20) distinguished design schools from China, Brazil, Japan, France, Korea, England, Wales, Italy, Spain, India, Sweden, the USA and Canada competed for the honour of being chosen the IBM "Best Design School" for 2004 by the judges.

The judges chose the School of Art & Design at Coventry University in England because they submitted the body of entries that most consistently reflected the 2015 design challenge as well as the character and culture of the city where the students live or study".

As a sponsor, IBM? will donate to the winning school a "state-of-the-art" IBM IntelliStation Z Pro workstation with dual Intel Xeon processors certified for Alias Studio software.

IBM's Worldwide Director for IntelliStation? Workstations and Linux Clusters, Mr. Bob Lenard, declared in a recent interview, "We've been thoroughly impressed with the stature and growth of the World Automotive Design Competition over the past three years as the world's premiere design competition. Our sponsorship is consistent with IBM's vision of developing technologies to help professionals solve design problems, improve design processes, and ultimately, to inspire better design."

Senior Lecturers Tim Ball and Neil Birtley were on hand to personally receive the award. Senior Lecturer Tim Ball exclaimed: "A superb prize and timing, as it will very likely go into our recently opened research facility based in the newly built 'Bugatti Building' next to our School building here on our Coventry campus. The facility has been established for continued development of automotive research activity and allows for both full-size conventional clay modeling/reverse engineering through 3-D scanning and virtual reality form development and evaluation. Further access to Alias will be a fantastic asset for staff and students. We are all very much looking forward to taking delivery of the new system".

All of the World Automotive Design Competition entries are on display within the Design Studio exhibit during the Canadian International Auto Show from February 13 - 22, 2004 on the 700 level, South Building, Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

However, you don't need to live in Toronto, Canada to view the entries. The public can view the competition entries on-line via the auto show web site at: www.autoshow.ca/design.

Press are invited to download photographs of the winners, judges and sponsors at the press conference, in both high and low resolution, by going directly to the media site at www.autoshow.ca/media.

For more information, contact Beth Xenarios, Director, Media Relations, telephone 1-905-342-2220 or e-mail beth@ajac.ca.