Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD)
Student STEM Competitions
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Square One’s IVD student competitions provide highly engaging & authentic project-based learning experiences to supplement your existing STEM curricula and/or after-school STEM programming. All six IVD Programs are eligible for MDE’s 99h Grant Program.
Start an IVD Team Now!
Visit our coach's portal, www.s1hub.org, and request a user account.
Once your account is approved, log into s1hub and request your team numbers.
Once your team numbers are granted, register for the current IVD season in the s1hub
IVD Program Overviews:
Autonomous IVD
Autonomous IVD challenges student teams to re-engineer a toddler's electric jeep, converting it into an fully autonomous vehicle. Competition vehicles are capable of parallel parking, avoiding obstacles, lane following, platooning and more.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Electronic motor controls, programming, sensor technologies, mechanical design (steering system)
Team Size: 5-10 students
Drone IVD
Drone IVD Pilots must navigate their drones through a variety of courses, while also accomplishing a variety of tasks including scientific measurements. Teams also complete pre-programmed autonomous flight missions.
Grade Level: 6-12
Focus: Manual piloting skills, programming autonomous flight
Team Size: 2-3 students
Full Scale IVD
In Full Scale IVD, student teams fabricate or re-engineer electric go karts, to perform on a variety of tracks, including the one hour endurance road course. Teams must design and build their vehicles to meet strict safety requirements including roll cages, safety harnesses, electrical protection, and more, while also striving to maintain vehicle efficiency via lightweighting, aerodynamics, and other vehicle innovations.
Grade Level: 9-12
Focus: Automotive engineering, vehicle safety, electric vehicle drive systems, lightweighting & energy efficiency, structural engineering, fabrication,
Team Size: 5-20 students
Square One’s Full-Scale Innovative Vehicle Design (IVD) Challenge inspires teams of high school students to either transform a gas-powered go-kart, or to build a vehicle from the ground up, creating an electric or hybrid-electric vehicle. Full Scale IVD vehicles are designed to maximize performance on two different tracks (Figure 8 Track & Road Course), while also featuring innovative components that differentiate them from competitors. Past IVD vehicles have included fuel cell technology, carbon fiber chassis, three wheel “leaning” vehicles, “drive by wire” technology, on-board data collection & control systems, and more.
Emphasis is on leading-edge industry needs including Light-weighting and Connected Vehicle Sensor Technologies, along with traditional vehicle engineering topics. Teams utilize vehicle engineering principles to predict and minimize energy consumption, to maximize vehicle range, and to guarantee driver safety. As part of the design process, students investigate all aspects of modern passenger vehicle design.
Mini IVD
Careful testing and data analysis provide Mini IVD teams with basic understanding of vehicle systems, and their impact on vehicle performance. Mini IVD teams use this content knowledge to optimize a single RC car for a variety of different tracks, ranging from Rock Crawling to a "Top Speed Challenge" drag race, by replacing various vehicle components between heats (tires, drive gears, shocks, and more). Teams also complete a Sensor Challenge, integrating sensors and microcontrollers into their vehicle control system.
Grade Level: 6-12
Focus: Testing, data analysis, automotive engineering concepts, RC vehicle mechanics
Team Size: 3-5 students
Underwater IVD
In Underwater IVD, pilots maneuver their student designed and student built Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) through a variety of courses. Teams complete tasks including lifting weights off the bottom and placing in floating baskets , dropping "bombs" on targets, collecting scientific measurements underwater, and more.
Grade Level: 3-12
Focus: Marine design (buoyancy, dynamics, etc), analog control systems & wiring, mission specific problem solving
Team Size: 3-5 students
V2X IVD
V2X IVD student coders program small robotic vehicles to complete a variety of missions, ranging from transporting packages through simulated warehouses, to navigating pre-programmed courses autonomously, to using AI vision systems to identify course obstacles and react accordingly (Senior Division). Teams use the microcontrollers and hardware of their choosing, most integrating Micro:bit or Arduino controllers.
Grade Level: 2-12
Focus: Microcontroller programming, sensor technologies, AI vision systems, algorithm planning
Team Size: 2-5 students
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