The winners of the 19th annual American Iron and Steel Institute Summer Automotive Design Internship Event were recently announced. Three pairs of design and engineering students from the College for Creative Studies and the University of Michigan were announced as the winners. This year's staging of the event focused on the theme "Inside Out". The winners all came up with vehicles designed to showcase the strength of the exterior components of their vehicles.

Ron Krupitzer, the Vice President for Automotive Applications at AISI, has this to say: "Inspiration comes in many forms, and each of these models prove that great things can happen with car design by incorporating advanced steel and safety technologies. Together the CCS and UM students collaborated on real world automotive challenges, developing three aggressively styled models, each on a distinct engineering platform."

The first of the three concept cars declared as winners is the Dodge Dendro designed by Nicola Ren Stone and engineered by Alok Pradhan. The said concept car is named after the black mamba - the "Dendroaspis polylepis", the fastest and the most venomous snake in the world. That is because Stone got the inspiration for the Dodge Dendro from snakes.

"I designed an exoskeleton frame to enclose the occupants in a triangle shape. This unique shape allowed for the absence of a typical B-pillar, allowing the front grill to serve as an intrinsic part of the structure, rather than as decoration," explained Stone. "The bumpers are connected through a long vertical structure that travels the length of the car through the interior. This anchors the structure, while providing stiffness to the rear ‘tail bone,' which also serves as the trunk. Together with my engineering partner Alok, we proved that this proposed design not only met automotive safety requirements, but exceeded them."

"For the frame design, I combined the strength of exoskeletons with the flexibility of a creature that appears to have no skeleton, the snake. Able to flex its body into almost any position was a perfect compliment to steel technology currently being developed for airplane wings." Stone also said that they chose to make the Dendro into a Dodge because "Dodge creates the impression of strength on the road, with a style and attitude that is unmistakable." A Dodge AC compressor would certainly not look out of place in the Dendro.

The second concept vehicle was designed by Tyler Mars and engineered by Zoheb Kahn. The concept is called as the Jeep Roanoke. According to Mars, the vehicle "is inspired by the very dark, intimidating theme of artwork by H.R. Giger, and by the very unique, raw look of Jeep itself."

Just like the Dendro, the Roanoke is also designed to provide peace of mind for is occupants since its exterior is designed to protect the occupants of the vehicle. The third concept vehicle is the Pontiac Hematon designed by Timothy O'Donnell and engineered by Jennifer Hoskins. According to O'Donnell, "The Hematon is inspired by the exposed frame and integrated body parts seen on sport bikes. By pushing the frame out to the surface of the body, it becomes a visible reassuring reminder to the driver that there is a structurally sound, high-strength steel exoskeleton protecting them at all times."