How Project Arrow was a real-world education for some automotive students

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 and Genovese, both 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 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 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.

“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, he 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 rear-hinged 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.”