DAAP students design contest-winning cars for Volkswagen

When Simon Wells arrived at the University of Cincinnati almost 5 years ago, he had been drawing for years. He had also dabbled in 3D modeling and computer graphics during high school in Texas. Though he had always had skill, his first day at UC's College of Design Architecture, Art and Planning brought him to an important realization.
 
"I wasn't any good," he says, laughing.
 
Five years later, Wells has more than developed his skills as a designer. Two weeks ago, Wells and his classmate Cameron Bresn were both named winners of the 2014 Volkswagen Design Contest.
 
The contest called for contestants across the country to design a car that might appear in a video game. But the typical racing game was not on Wells' radar. He wanted to go in a more sci-fi direction to truly excite the folks at Volkwagen.
 
"I wanted to show them something they wouldn't see at work," Wells says.
 
Wells' and Bresn's professor decided to integrate the contest into the semester-long design class. Since the goal of the class is to offer students the experience to land an internship, the Volkswagen Design Contest's promise of an internship in Germany was the perfect motivator.
 
Wells' winning design, entitled "The Quantum Ambassador," was chosen out of hundreds of applicants. The car he created would allow scientists to travel through space and eventually through a black hole—a true "journey into the unknown." The vehicle would be a large-scale "faraday cage," a tool police officers use to prevent electronic signals from reaching objects like cell phones. This feature would block the radiation from the black hole. The design itself even incorporated the "cage" theme.
 
Volkswagon was impressed, to say the least. As winners of their annual contest, Wells and Bresn will travel to Germany for an internship with the company next year.
 
Until then, Wells is already working with Volkswagon in California as an intern. His job is to imagine what the car of the future will look like it and to put his imagination to paper. Since Wells hopes to be doing this kind of work after graduation, this internship is a perfect opportunity. It's also the well-deserved product of five years of long hours and hard work. Wells' contest-winning entry will be a key part of his final portfolio at the end of the school year. 
 
"I used to get chest pains from the stress," Wells says. "But the work is enjoyable; at the end of the day, we're just drawing."