Missouri University of Science and Technology works to get its fuel-cell car ready for the road. (Jim Motavalli photo)

YUMA, ARIZONA–David Koch experienced both ecstasy and panic on the same day. The graduate student is a member of Penn State’s EcoCar team, which is competing with 15 other collegiate teams to build the cleanest, most consumer-friendly vehicle on the road. The competition is helping create career goals for hundreds of engineering students, and providing innovative employees for the auto skunkworks of the future. At many mechanical and electrical engineering departments, clean cars are where the action is.

The worst part of the day for Koch was when he dropped a washer into the power inverter of his team’s biodiesel-fueled extended-range electric vehicle. Like the Chevrolet Volt, it uses its small internal-combustion engine (in this case a 1.3-liter diesel from the European Opel Corsa) not to turn the wheels but to power a 75-kilowatt generator to provide electricity for the 120-kilowatt motors. That washer could have caused a lot of mischief, so work ground to a halt for several hours as the team fished around in a two-inch by two-inch hole. They found it….