The event coincides with a coast-to-coast tour of hydrogen vehicles sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The fleet of hydrogen cars departed from Maine on Sunday, Aug. 10, for a road trip to Los Angeles.

Two Missouri S&T hydrogen buses that provide shuttle service in Rolla and back and forth to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., will also be on display.

The ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 19, at 900 Collegiate Blvd., off exit 185 of U.S. Interstate 44 and off White Columns Drive. The event site is also the future home for Missouri S&T’s EcoCAR Challenge Team, a student design team that will re-engineer a Saturn VUE over the next three years as part of “EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge,” sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors, Natural Resources Canada and other organizations.

The ribbon-cutting is the latest facet of Missouri S&T’s “Show Me the Road to Hydrogen” project, a collaborative effort involving several federal agencies, the Missouri Transportation Institute and corporate partners. A related ceremony will occur earlier that day at the Sverdrup Gate (main gate) of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. There, at 9:30 a.m., two Ford H2ICE (hydrogen internal combustion engine) shuttle buses will be on display until 9:50 a.m., when those shuttles will transport local officials and visiting dignitaries to the Rolla event.

The shuttle service, part of the Missouri S&T demonstration project, has been running since July 31, 2007, when the service took its first passengers from the Havener Center on the Missouri S&T campus to Hy Point Industrial Park east of Rolla.

The Hydrogen Road Tour is a coast-to-coast tour with 33 stops in 19 states. The tour features hydrogen vehicles from various auto manufacturers and will demonstrate progress and commitment toward commercially viable, emissions-free hydrogen vehicles in each state.

Contributors to the Missouri S&T event at Rolla include the Defense Logistics Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation Research Innovation and Technology Administration, Federal Transit Administration, the Missouri S&T National University Transportation Center, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Missouri Transportation Institute, Gas Technologies Institute, EmPower CES LLC, Collegiate Station, General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Linde AG.

Sponsors for the E3 (E-cubed) Commons facilities, shuttle service and EcoCAR Challenge include Missouri S&T, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Federal Transit Administration and the Missouri S&T National University Transportation Center. Contributors include the U.S. Department of Transportation Research Innovation and Technology Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Missouri Transportation Institute, Gas Technology Institute, EmPower CES LLC, General Motors and Ford Motor Co.

E3 (E-cubed) Commons is the name given for the site of several planned renewable energy, environmental and educational initiatives sponsored by Missouri S&T in collaboration with many governmental and industry partners. The university uses the equation “E3 = C” (or “E-cubed = C”) as shorthand for the slogan “energy, environment and education equals civilization.”