About the clusters

The research in ECO² Vehicle Design is brought together in three clusters, focusing on different cross-functional conflicts with aspects of system level and/or functional modelling integrated. These clusters are Alignment, Density and Transformation.

At the centre for ECO2 Vehicle Design we develop methods to enable the design of resource efficient vehicles. We’ve organized these projects in three different clusters, called Alignment, Density and Transformation. This is based on how we view model complexity.

A good model will include just enough complexity to capture the underlying behavior of the system and provide us with useful information. We consider complexity along three different dimensions: function, form and scale. Thus we can view the model from the perspective of two of these dimensions at a time. And it’s these different 2-D-spaces that we use as a basis for the clustering of the projects in ECO2.

So the first 2-D-space is alignment and it’s the function/form space. This describes to which extent functions influence each other because of the form we’ve chosen.
Density is the second 2-D space, the form/scale space. This describes the amount of functions provided relative to the volume of space, or wider resources needed for their provision.
The third 2-D space is transformation, the function/scale space. This space describes the mapping of functions to another function, for the purpose of improving some attribute of the overall system.

This way of clustering research projects at ECO2 allow us to focus on reduced aspects of the complexity without losing sight of the overall complex problem that we want to solve. It helps us connect projects focusing on similar cross-functional conflicts, thereby supporting the strategy to tackle cross-functional conflicts, which has proven to be advantageous.

They also create a critical mass around a number of vehicle design functions of vital importance within the centre industrial partner’s R&D activities, and thus feed directly into the partners advanced engineering processes. Further, the direct inclusion of SME:s in the clusters and projects shortens the time to market, by feeding into the production and testing proof of concept prototypes.

Each of the three cluster is managed by a member of the CMG and has an associated Steering Group, which consist of specialists and supervisors from partners, PhD students and other academic experts. Thus, the Clusters act as important connections between the partners.