DASH+, a contest that challenges students to use their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills, as well as their creativity, to design an "eco-friendly" automotive dashboard of the future, has announced the three teams that have made it to the finals.

DASH+ is part of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE Education Program and is funded by $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Each of the high-school teams developed a dashboard concept, technical plan, and "pitch video" (see below) detailing how its future dashboard will drive change today. The dashboard designs emphasized fuel efficiency and encourage behavioral change via eco-feedback to the driver.

"It was great to see so many students jump at the opportunity to take the skills they have acquired in class and apply them in this challenge to change the future of transportation," said Mitch Aiken, director of education for the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE.

The three semi-finalist teams are:

EDV Technologies from Dos Pueblos Senior High School in Santa Barbara, CA. EDV, for El Diseno Verde (The Green Design), incorporates technology that continuously calculates maximum fuel economy based on previous performance of other vehicles on similar road conditions. The dashboard alerts the driver to his/her environmental impact and awards GreenPoints, creating an eco-friendly competition.

Harker Innovation from The Harker School in San Jose, CA. This team proposed a tree-shaped speedometer, called eHEART, to track the driver's environmentalprogress by calculating statistics such as added expenses caused by fast driving and greater savings from regenerative braking.

DASH Tech from The Henry Ford Academy in Dearborn, MI. DASH Tech's plan includes a feature that allows the driver to create a customizable 3D avatar that turns eco-friendly driving into a competition with friends and communicates how the driver's behavior impacts fuel economy and the environment.

Just as teams in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE are in the final laps of their race to see who wins the challenge of developing a consumer-ready, 100 MPGe vehicle, the DASH+ high school students must now win the public's votes in order to cross the finish line. The judges on the DASH+ expert panel come from the Art Center College of Design, IDEO, St. Louis Science Center, U.S. Department of Energy, X PRIZE Foundation, and Discovery Education and represent the fields of automotive design, engineering, education and energy. The panel's score is based on numerous variables but only counts for a part of each team's final score—the rest will be determined through online public voting, which is open through May 31.

Members of the Grand Prize winning team with the highest combined score will travel to Detroit this summer where they will have the opportunity to pitch their dashboard design to representatives from the automotive industry, receive feedback on their entry, and meet the teams competing in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE.

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