The company is contributing advanced radar sensors, engineering volunteer support and financial contributions to the program, giving participating students hands-on experience with the kinds of automotive problems that engineers face in industry.
DENSO’s Radar Donation Brings Advanced Driver Assistance Hardware to Campus
At the center of DENSO’s commitment is advanced radar sensing technology, donated to support vehicle development activities within the competition. Radar is a foundational component of the advanced driver assistance systems found on modern vehicles, and DENSO points to decades of experience developing sensing technologies that help enable those systems and safer mobility solutions.
By giving students access to industry-relevant technologies, the company says it is helping bridge the gap between classroom learning and real-world engineering applications. For university teams working on connected and automated vehicle features, access to sensing hardware of this kind offers a path to testing ideas on equipment closer to what ships in production vehicles than what a typical academic budget allows.
DENSO Leadership Frames the Sponsorship as a Talent Investment
Mike Murzyn, leader of DENSO’s North America Peace of Mind business group, framed the sponsorship as part of a broader effort to develop the people who will build future vehicles.
“DENSO is committed to creating safer, smarter and more sustainable mobility while helping develop the next generation of engineers and technology leaders,” Murzyn said. “EcoCAR gives students the opportunity to work on real-world technologies, collaborate with industry experts and solve meaningful engineering challenges. We’re proud to support a program that helps build the technical talent, creativity and leadership needed to shape the future of mobility.”
How the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge Is Structured
The EcoCAR Innovation Challenge is a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition managed by Argonne National Laboratory. The program brings together 20 university teams from across North America and challenges them to apply cutting-edge engineering to real vehicles.
The technical scope is broad. Teams develop advanced vehicle technologies across areas such as connected and automated vehicles, battery systems, powertrain development, innovation and entrepreneurship. Beyond the engineering itself, the program is designed to build the leadership and project management skills needed for careers in automotive engineering, transportation and advanced manufacturing. Through collaboration with industry sponsors and technical experts, participants are expected to gain experience that extends past engineering fundamentals into communication and commercialization skills.
DENSO’s Decade of Support for Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions
The EcoCAR sponsorship builds on a long relationship. DENSO has supported Advanced Vehicle Technology Competitions for more than 10 years, describing the effort as part of its commitment to developing future talent and advancing safer, more sustainable mobility.
The company’s engagement with students extends beyond this single program. DENSO describes itself as a longtime supporter of STEM education and talent development initiatives across North America, with contributions to university programs, skilled trades and other areas vital to helping the technical leaders of tomorrow grow their skills.
DENSO’s Global and North American Footprint
DENSO is headquartered in Kariya, Japan, and reports annual revenue of 7,540.0 billion yen, or US$47.2 billion. The company develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road today, according to its own description, and invests in around 170 facilities worldwide. Its product lines span electrification, powertrain, thermal and mobility electronics, among others. DENSO reports 155,000 global employees and says it spent around 9.2 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.
In North America, DENSO is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, and employs more than 23,000 team members across more than 40 sites in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The company reported $12.7 billion in consolidated North American sales in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.
What DENSO and EcoCAR Say Comes Next
For students, the practical result of the sponsorship is access: to radar hardware, to volunteer engineers from a major supplier and to the financial backing that helps teams build and compete. For DENSO, the arrangement keeps the company close to the engineers who will soon be entering the automotive workforce.
Additional information about the competition is available at avtcseries.org, and more on DENSO’s worldwide and North American operations can be found at denso.com/global/en and denso.com/us-ca