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CDN and GM launch new interactive competition for students in North America

Multiple internships on offer with CDN-GM Interactive Competition Car Design News is pleased to announce the launch of the Car Design News-GM interactive design competition, a collaboration with GM and our partners, Dassault Systèmes and Faurecia. Eight student winners will be awarded internships at GM's design studios in North America in 2012 as the principal prizes, whilst our partner, Faurecia, will be choosing its own additional winner and offering this student an internship at its studios in either the US, Europe or Asia.  The competition is open to students studying at college/university level in the USA and Canada, on any design course, and to former students who graduated from these courses within the period April 2010 to March 2011. Students display and update their ideas and work-in-progress on the competition's website, where the interactivity comes from the ability of observers to comment and suggest specific amendments, and from GM mentors who will publicly guide and support the students.

Nissan creates 'scent of the future'

NISSAN has created what it calls ‘the scent of the future’, representing what Planet Earth might smell like in an imagined world where everyone drove zero-emissions vehicles. By teaming up with master perfumer and Aroma Academy Scientist Dr George Dodd, the firm has created its ‘aromatic blueprint’ for the future. Dodd, reportedly inspired by long walks in the Scottish Highlands, has created an in-car fragrance that he says is proven to inspire ‘a positive sense of well-being’ in people who smell it.

Chrysler to close Pacifica Advanced Design Studios

The 20 designers at Chrysler's Pacifica Advanced Design Studios in Carlsbad, California will soon be finding themselves out of a job. The struggling North American automaker announced the closure of the facility on Friday, stating that the company is ‘leveraging resources worldwide, forming new joint ventures and alliances and consolidating operations in order to better achieve global balance.' Responsible for many of the more successful designs hailing from Chrysler in recent times, including the Chrysler 300 sedan and the new Dodge Challenger musclecar, the Pacifica Advanced Product Design Center also yielded the Nassau concept car and the Pacifica crossover – bearing the same name as the west coast studios in which it was created. The work done at the Pacifica Advanced Design Center will be consolidated into the Advance Design function in Auburn Hills and continue to be led by Senior Vice President of Design, Trevor Creed.