Participants in the 79th annual National Truck Driving Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana, took to the road course Thursday (Aug. 11) for the second challenge phase in the competition to identify the best drivers in the U.S. More than 430 professional drivers from all 50 states are competing for top honors in eight different classes, plus step van, and the chance to be named the 2016 Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion.

Cummins is the talk of the trucking industry yet again following last month’s unveiling of our 2017 X15 heavy-duty truck engines, an evolution of our legendary ISX15, and a dramatic leap forward in diesel engine technology. Owners and drivers are eager to take advantage of the X15’s improved engine efficiency, lower cost of ownership and enhanced overall driving experience.

*Note: Srikanth Padmanabhan is the President, Engine Business at Cummins Inc. On Aug. 4, 2016, he joined Cummins leaders and thousands of Cummins employees unveil the newest products and technologies in Cummins' 2017 engine lineup. Here, in his own words, Srikanth describes how Cummins employees around the globe are dedicated to Powering What's Next.

Remember the Cummins ISV5.0-Powered "Mad Maxxis” Off-Road Runner? Fred Williams, host of Motor Trend’s “Dirt Every Day” series is at it again, this time using a 2.8L Cummins Turbo Diesel to repower his 1997 Jeep® Wrangler® – and then driving it 12 feet underwater.

It happens like clockwork every May. The air gets warmer and the weather gets less predictable and more intense, and we all know it’s coming. So there are really few excuses not to have a backup power plan in place. After all, you may only lose power for a couple of minutes, but it could also end up being weeks. And enduring a power outage that long could prove to be a miserable experience.

Cummins will partner again with Peterbilt Motors Company, a division of PACCAR, to develop and demonstrate technologies under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SuperTruck II program. “Cummins and the entire team is focused on developing technologies that can transform the industry and help our customers be more successful while continuing to be great stewards of the environment.

Cummins and Ceres Power Holdings PLC, a U.K.-based company, will collaborate on a nearly $5 million project to develop fuel cell power for data centers after receiving an award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The project partnership also includes the University of Connecticut and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, one of the DOE’s national laboratories. It will be funded by contributions from Cummins, the DOE and other parties.

Some students at Schmitt Elementary will soon spend part of their school day having fun with rubber bands, straws, plastic tubes and other household items. Not to worry, it’s just the second year of an innovative introduction to the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) called the Curiosity Machine. More than 70 Cummins engineers will be helping 5th and 6th graders at the school build airplanes, rockets and other cool stuff.

The gray, rectangular machine emitting a bright blue light doesn’t look particularly impressive as it quietly goes about its work at the Cummins Technical Center (CTC) in Columbus, Indiana. But some believe the technology it uses could one day change manufacturing as we know it. 3D printers can take extremely detailed instructions to make precise objects a layer at a time, with relatively little waste and, theoretically at least, anywhere in the world. That could not only impact innovation, but perhaps inventory someday and transportation, too.

Women have long been under-represented in engineering in the United States, so when Cummins Chemical Engineer Alyssa Arend met with a group of Girl Scouts last year, she had a secret weapon to pique their interest in the subject: A model of the company’s QSK95 engine made entirely of LEGOs.