Automotive News Canada - July 2023 - 8

8
* JULY 2023
The Project Arrow classroom
Building a real-world
concept car under the
pressure of a real-world
deadline provided
a real-world education
and a degree of difference
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
MOST MORNINGS, IZZY COSSARIN
buzzed into Bay 3 at Ontario Tech
University's Automotive Centre of
Excellence at about 8 a.m. Behind an
access door stamped " NO TOURS, " she
had put in an hour or two of work on the
secretive automotive project the school
had undertaken, before cutting across the
Oshawa, Ont., campus to class.
Even there, Project Arrow - the all-Canadian
electric-vehicle prototype sitting
partially built at the research and testing
lab - was never far from her mind.
" I would have notes and be paying
attention in class and have email going
[managing] parts being ordered, " Cossarin
told Automotive News Canada.
A mechatronics engineering student
at the time, Cossarin spent nearly two
years working with staff from ACE and
the Automotive Parts Manufacturers'
Association (APMA), helping move Project
Arrow from the drawing board to the Las
Vegas show floor at CES in January.
She wasn't alone.
Andrew Genovese, who's pursuing
an automotive-engineering degree,
was another student pulling long hours
through the back half of 2022 as the
school's build team rushed to get the concept
vehicle finished.
" I've been hands-on pretty much every
day, " Genovese said. " Anything from
the body panels, the suspension, the subframes,
interior. Basically, look at a piece
of the car, and I've had a hand on it. "
Six Ontario Tech University students
were typically working on Project Arrow
at any one time. But unlike the others
who cycled in and out, Cossarin, 21, and
Genovese, 22, never missed a beat. Being
among the insiders on the well-watched,
multimillion-dollar project was a unique
experience for both, and the opportunities
and the connections it fostered were " out
of this world, " Cossarin said.
In January, they accompanied Project
Ontario Tech University students Andrew
Genovese, left, and Izzy Cossarin, right, were
part of a core team of about 12 that saw
Project Arrow through to completion. Paula
Ambra, centre, of the university's Automotive
Centre of Excellence, was the project's
assistant chief engineer. PHOTO: DAVID KENNEDY
Arrow to CES. It was something of a victory
lap.
The APMA launched Project Arrow at
the beginning of 2020 with a design competition
ultimately won by a team of four
students from Carleton University in
Ottawa. As the APMA worked to turn the
design into reality, it tapped Ontario Tech
University as the lead academic institution
for the detailed engineering and aerodynamic
testing, and as the build partner.
STUDYING SUPPLIERS
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
on the auto industry, more that 500
Canadian parts makers were interested in
being involved.
One of Cossarin's earliest roles was
researching the capabilities of the interested
suppliers and helping whittle down
the list to those the APMA was confident
could deliver. About 230 companies
showed they had the qualifications to take
part, while 58 got the nod to be part of the
physical vehicle.
Then it was on to logistics.
But nothing in Cossarin's past had quite
prepared her for the supply-chain hurdles
ahead. Cossarin was originally from
From changing the
hinge material
because of strength
and rigidity, to the
actual alignment of
the door skins and
the door frame was,
for me, the biggest
challenge. "
Andrew Genovese
An Ontario Tech University student
who worked full-time to complete
Project Arrow to show at CES
Caledon, north of Toronto, and was set on
engineering by the time she was 12. She
excelled in math and science and participated
in robotics competitions throughout
her teens.
" Trying to establish all of that groundwork
was probably the hardest challenge, "
she. " And coming into this project, I didn't
even realize all of the work that went into
that. "
After countless meetings and dozens of
long-running email threads with suppliers
over the past two years, that has changed.
" I can ship anything anywhere in the
world at this point. I'm an expert at it. "
She also lent a hand to the engineers on
the project's design and was hands-on last
fall as the build kicked into high gear.
'BAY 3, THAT'S MY HOME'
But while Cossarin was splitting her
time between class and Project Arrow,
Genovese focused on the project full
time beginning last summer as part of
the university's co-op program. With the
CES deadline looming, that often meant
12-hour days.
Izzy Cossarin, left, graduated from Ontario Tech University in the spring and
landed a job as an automation engineer with heavy-equipment maker Caterpillar
Inc. Andrew Genovese graduates next year and has not decided what part of the
auto sector he wants to work in. PHOTO: DAVID KENNEDY
" Bay 3, that's my home, " he said.
Genovese grew up in Burlington, west
of Toronto, and was passionate about cars
from a young age. Project Arrow was the
" greatest opportunity " an auto-engineering
student could hope to get, she said.
But as parts began filtering in, it
became clear that Project Arrow was no
" Lego set, " he said.
" There's no instruction manual. The
parts don't fit perfectly, and you have to
make them fit. "
For many components, this meant
getting creative, especially for the rearhinged
doors.
" From changing the hinge material
because of strength and rigidity, to the
actual alignment of the door skins and the
door frame was, for me, the biggest challenge, "
Genovese said.
The process took " weeks and weeks, but
we got it. "
BUILDING A CAREER
Throughout the build, Genovese and
Cossarin worked with a core team of
about 12, headed by Fraser Dunn, the
APMA's chief engineer for the project.
From Automotive Centre of Excellence,
Paula Ambra, the project's assistant chief
engineer, Gord Koehne, the lead machinist,
and Kevin Carlucci, the lead mechanic,
were integral. APMA Chief Technology
Officer Colin Dhillon was also a perennial
presence in Bay 3.
APMA President Flavio Volpe has
pointed to Project Arrow as a showpiece
for Canadian suppliers. While its main
aim has been to drum up business for the
parts companies transitioning to the electric
era, equipping students at Ontario
Tech University with the technical backing
and a broad set of opportunities has
been a welcome byproduct.
Cossarin, for instance, found herself
pulled into impromptu job interviews on
the show floor at CES. She returned to
Canada with two full-time offers. After
wrapping up her mechatronics degree this
spring, she jumped directly from Project
Arrow into the workforce as an automation
engineer with heavy-equipment
maker Caterpillar Inc.
Genovese has another year before graduating
but he's hopeful that the depth of
experience gained - along with the long
string of contacts he has made while traveling
across Canada and the United States
with Project Arrow over the past several
months - will pay dividends once he has
his degree in hand.
The one big question, he said, is deciding
exactly what part of the auto sector he
wants to work in.
" This project has been a mix of everything.
It has been manufacturing, it has
been design, it has been project management,
and I've enjoyed every aspect of it. "
- ANC
Automotive News Canada - July 2023

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