PAVE and AV industry sponsors offer regional essay contests in Washington, D.C., Albuquerque, and Southeast Ohio to encourage young people to imagine how these technologies can shape their future transportation system
WASHINGTON — Partners for Automated Vehicle Education launched the first-ever PAVE Essay Contest and Scholarship Program for high school juniors and seniors to contemplate a future with automated vehicles – and write about what this technology could mean for their communities. The program offers contest winners a total of nearly $15,000 in college scholarship funding.
“Autonomous vehicles offer the biggest opportunity since the dawn of the automobile to rethink our transportation system: How can we create a system that serves more people more effectively, while making roads more efficient and more environmentally sustainable?” said PAVE Executive Director Tara Andringa. “We at PAVE want everyone in the community to have a voice in what this future transportation system looks like, and this essay contest is an opportunity for young people to contribute their vision and ideas and dreams to help imagine what their future holds.”
The essay contest – which is planned to be an annual event, in different places each year – is open to students in select areas, representing communities with a diversity in geography, transportation challenges, and economies. The 2022 contest locations are Metropolitan Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Athens and Vinton Counties in Southeast Ohio.
The contest opens November 1, 2022, and will accept submissions through January 31, 2023. Students will choose between three essay prompts related to automated vehicle technology and its societal effects. A committee of experts from the AV ecosystem will score student essays and select the winning essays. In each contest, scholarship funding will be given to the top three submissions, in the following amounts: first place winners will receive $2,500, second place will receive $1,500, and third place winners will receive $500.
In each location, companies and organizations from the AV ecosystem are donating the scholarship funding and sponsoring the contest. The Washington, DC, contest is sponsored by STEER Tech; the Albuquerque contest is sponsored by Torc; and the Ohio contest is sponsored by the Transportation Research Center, Inc., and DriveOhio.
More details about the contest are available on the PAVE contest website at: https://pavecampaign.org/pave-essay-contest/
About PAVE:
PAVE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to improve public understanding of advanced vehicle technologies in order to maximize the potential benefits in safety, mobility and sustainability. PAVE members include automotive manufacturers, technology companies, and nonprofit organizations.
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