PPG presents CCS students with auto glass design awards

Winning concepts from student designers in an annual automotive glass design contest sponsored by PPG Industries show the beauty of big, bold glass roofs, sides, tops and fronts created in single simplistic shapes.

Students at Detroit´s College for Creative Studies (CCS) who won the PPG Design Challenge Awards for 2006 created concepts for a premium midsize multi-activity vehicle that best demonstrate unique window systems.

First place was won by Dong Tran, 23, Syracuse, N.Y., who received a $1,500 scholarship. His concept for a midsize sport-utility crossover called for a single piece of solar-control glass from the front bumper to rear spoiler. Metallic-framed glass gullwing doors and glass A-pillars create the open profile Tran wanted while affording visibility and usability.

Second place was awarded to John McDougall, 20, Jamestown, N.D., who received a $1,000 scholarship. McDougall designed a car with two solar-absorbing glass leaflike shapes topping the upper half and connected to a stemlike roof vein. The self-cleaning glass uses solar energy for clean power.

Third place went to Woo Tak Kim, 20, Seoul, South Korea, who was given a $500 scholarship. Kim´s design uses a single piece of glass to wrap around the vehicle from the passenger side across the front to the driver side, encompassing the side windows and windshield. A four-panel glass roof can be brought down into the interior to serve as tables while the storage door has five glass panels for easy access.

Joe Stas, PPG vice president, automotive OEM glass, announced the winners in the company´s seventh annual auto glass design competition at the North American International Auto Show here and presented the students with glass trophies.

During the ceremonies, Alan Kivisto, PPG global product marketing manager, recognized Suzanne Bartsch, senior account manager, and Amy McFarren, senior manager, automotive consulting, J.D. Power and Associates, for participating in the PPG Design Challenge. J.D. Power and Associates has cooperated with PPG since the competition´s inception, and each year J.D. Power and Associates´ automotive industry experts define the design parameters.

Judges were DaimlerChrysler Designer Amina Horozic of the advanced interior studio in the product design office; Ford Motor Co. Senior Designer Robert Gelardi, with North America Design for S197 Mustang; and General Motors Advanced Design Manager Crystal Windham. Horozic and Windham are CCS graduates.

Twelve transportation design sophomores presented concepts supported by artwork and clay models for judging.