Innovation Journal Issue 7: HP teams with Shell | HP® Official Site

4,530 students from around the world competed in the 2017
Shell Eco-marathon

Students from around the globe recently competed in the 2017 Shell Eco-marathon. The Shell Eco-marathon is a unique competition that challenges students to design, build, and drive the most energy-efficient car. These students were on three different tracks, and represented 53 countries. A total of 4,530 students across the three events—1,000 Asia, 1,230 in the Americas, and 2,300 in Europe—and a total of 403 teams competed.

The Shell Eco-marathon competition traces its roots back to 1939 when Shell Oil Company employees in the USA made a friendly wager on who could travel the farthest on one gallon of gasoline. In 1985, the first formal Shell Eco-marathon competition was held in Europe and since then, it has expanded to two more continents, includes many energy types, and sparks passionate debate around the future of automotive energy efficiency and mobility.

St. Thomas Academy’s Experimental Vehicle Team (EVT) won
the Drivers World Championship

Student teams competed in one of two vehicle classes: Prototype—futuristic and highly aerodynamic vehicles—or UrbanConcept – more practically-designed vehicles that resemble today’s cars. The competition occurred over several days during which teams made as many attempts as possible to travel the farthest on the equivalent of one liter of fuel. Fuel efficiency measurements take into account liters or gallons depending on the relevant measure for the region the competition is taking place in. Teams traveled a fixed number of laps around the circuit at a set speed, with the number of laps and distance varying slightly by region. At the Americas competition for example, teams drove 10 laps of a 0.6-mile circuit for a total of six miles (almost 10 kilometers).

Winners from Asia, the Americas, and Europe regions then competed in the Drivers’ World Championship in London at the end of May. St. Thomas Academy’s team from the U.S. persevered to be awarded the honor of the quickest and most energy-efficient driver in the world.

Diversity, perseverance and passion

Chandrakant Patel and Mei Jiang from HP discussing the future
of innovation

This year’s competition saw a growing number of female participants and team leaders. In the Americas region alone, 53 female drivers competed in the Americas event and there were 16 female team managers. Notably, 30% of the University of Michigan Ann Arbor team was comprised of females including key leadership positions.

Teams were also rewarded for off-track work with prizes for communications, design, technical innovation, safety, and perseverance. And perseverance went well beyond the task at hand with teams using crowdfunding to pay for their trips, going to extremes to get to regional venues and overcoming various travel difficulties. The passion and pride the Shell Eco-marathon students display around these events is amazing.

A growing number of female participants competed in this
year’s event

A Festival of innovation

This year’s Shell Eco-marathon was a featured element of the Make the Future festivals of ideas and innovation. These festivals were held in the host cities of Singapore, Detroit, and London. Festival goers were immersed in bright energy ideas inspiring current and future energy solutions, free virtual reality experiences, and hands-on science experiments.

HP was the official Global Information Technology Partner for the Shell Eco-marathon, providing IT infrastructure to the event and showcasing the technology of a low-carbon future as part of the Make the Future festival.

Festival attendees were immersed in hands-on science
experiments

In the Americas region, HP Chief Engineer Chandrakant Patel and HP Innovation Journal Editor-In-Chief Mei Jiang joined Shell Eco-Marathon organizers, Pam Rosen and Norman Koch, on a panel to discuss the impact events like this have on future innovation.

“It’s amazing to see what these kids are doing. They are taking a portfolio of energy sources and a small amount of fuel on the supply side, and then on the demand side they look at things like how do you reduce the fairing to lessen wind resistance. Taking the fundamentals of what they know, then learn by building it, and finally push the limits to see how far they can go,” shared Patel. “This is a perfect example of excellence in integrated supply demand management that these students have exhibited.”

Festival attendees cheer on drivers

HP also offered Make the Future festival attendees hands-on experiences with HP products—including the HP Mobility Experience—Traveling Habitat—where attendees could move through vignettes and interact with HP Elite and Sprout by HP products. Race team members could also stop by the Student Pit Stop to have their team photos printed out on HP DesignJet large format printers.

“The Make the Future festival and Shell Eco-marathon enable us to bring the creators of tomorrow and communities together in support of a brighter energy future,” shared Pam Rosen, General Manager. “It’s through great partnerships and collaborations like we share with HP, that these events are possible. By working and innovating together we can help to transform lives and bring more and cleaner energy to communities across the world,” added Rosen.