Students from Penn State's Pennsylvania Transportation Institute recently were chosen as one of the top 15 American university groups to receive a 2002 Ford Explorer to use in the FutureTruck 2002 Competition, according to a PTI press release.

The competition, which takes place from June 11 to 21, will ask students to reengineer the Explorer into a low emissions vehicle with at least 25 percent higher fuel economy, the release said.

Students cannot sacrifice the vehicle's performance or affordability, the release said. This will require students to use cutting-edge technology including advanced propulsion systems, space-age materials and alternative fuels.

"This is a great project, one of the few opportunities that engineering students have to do an engineering project," said Daniel Haworth, advisor of Penn State's FutureTruck initiative, in the release.

Penn State will be judged in a series of events including technical performance and static design, the release said.

The event also encourages teams to develop technologies that reduce total cycle greenhouse gas emissions by including an event that judges "upstream fuel-cycle emissions" and dynamometer emissions measurements, the release said.

This year is Penn State's third appearance at the event.