What can events like the Shell Eco-marathon hope to achieve?
Collaboration needed for quantifiable success and results.
The PNEC-NUST team was unable to impress in their urban concept category but won an off-track award nevertheless as Pakistan made their presence felt at the international event. PHOTO: BILAL MEMON/EXPRESS
MANILA:
If you ask any of the six Pakistan teams that were able to take part in the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2014, you would get a very enthusiastic response as to what was the event able to achieve.
Months go into designing and building a fuel-efficient vehicle model. Add that to the efforts students make in gathering enough funds to finance the trip to Manila — where the event was held for the first time after Kuala Lumpur played the host twice. This is a tough enough task and pursuing academics at the same time does not make things any easier.
There is a reason why only six teams finally reached the Philippines. After hearing numbers hovering around the 20-team mark, it was hardly a surprise that only a handful did. However, that number hardly mattered once they were there.
Difference, though, lay in the quality of vehicles and their performance.
Across the six energy sources each in the urban concept and prototype models – the two categories featured at the event – Indonesia bagged the first prize in four, Thailand and Malaysia in three each, while China and Singapore finished first in one apiece.
Pakistan, with two of its teams competing in the prototype (petrol gasoline) model, finished 11th and 12th in the 13-team category. PNEC-NUST (11th) from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) recorded an equivalent of 99.2 kilometres on a litre of fuel, while PIEASian Sarukhs (12th) from the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences University posted 94.3. Virgin, from Thailand, the winners in that category recorded a whopping 1,796km.
Thailand, also the overall winners, posted 2,730.8km in their alternative petrol category in the prototype model.
The difference was loud and clear.
The one team that came close to giving competitors a run for their money was the one from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. Hammerhead Arc, as they chose to name it, competed in the prototype model and chose battery electric as its fuel source.
It finished sixth in their 14-team category with an equivalent distance of 205.6km, which – in the context of the race design – was not too far from the Thai winners that posted 263.4km.
But a difference was still clear and apparent.
Omar Sheikh, chairman and managing director of Shell Pakistan Limited and country chairperson for Shell companies in Pakistan, termed it a difference in cars and not the students.
His point was seconded by Ahmed Zia, a final year student at GIK Institute, who said ‘budget’ was the biggest reason behind the difference. “We start off with a very low budget,” Zia told The Expres Tribune. “We have simple tools. The other countries have time and a higher budget that allows them to build and design better.
“For us to be as competitive as Thailand, we needed a budget of Rs3 million. Right now, we have spent Rs1.5 million. If you double what we have spent right now, we would have been right up there [at the podium].”
A smart move, on part of the PNEC-NUST team, was to promote the event before their arrival. With the advent of social media, the Karachi team seemed to have spent a lot of time on spreading awareness about the event.
They won the off-track communications award because of their innovative approach and pocketed $2,000 — a good way to make the cash that other teams did through their on-track performance since the prize money was the same.
While the on-field performance left a little to be desired, it was the experience of competing with international standards that students took away with them from Manila.
What the event meant for others
One always wonders what can events like this, organised by a global group of energy and petrochemical companies, achieve in the long run.
Moving towards smarter mobility – the need for which has continued to evolve – fuel-efficient vehicles are the way forward. The mode of transport has evolved and will continue to do so. However, the challenges remain sustainable growth and development, coupled with efficiency at an affordable rate. All this while keeping the environmental footprint in mind.
A sound mind would start asking tons of questions right away. What about the role of the automobile industry in terms of adopting the designs students come up with since without that, the exercise’s success is difficult to quantify.
Jeremy Bentham, Shell Vice-President Global Business Environment, said the exercise was not just meant for the students. “The experience for the students is worth gold as they come to grips with challenges of working together and getting here,” said Bentham. “With regards to the work we do here, we are always working with vehicle companies. We are working in partnership with companies that were developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. We are part of projects that are demonstrating the practicality of such projects.”
While it may take time for the vehicle companies to adopt these designs and even more to bring them out on the road, the wheel has been set in motion.
Published in The Expres Tribune, February 17th, 2014.
If you ask any of the six Pakistan teams that were able to take part in the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2014, you would get a very enthusiastic response as to what was the event able to achieve.
Months go into designing and building a fuel-efficient vehicle model. Add that to the efforts students make in gathering enough funds to finance the trip to Manila — where the event was held for the first time after Kuala Lumpur played the host twice. This is a tough enough task and pursuing academics at the same time does not make things any easier.
There is a reason why only six teams finally reached the Philippines. After hearing numbers hovering around the 20-team mark, it was hardly a surprise that only a handful did. However, that number hardly mattered once they were there.
Difference, though, lay in the quality of vehicles and their performance.
Across the six energy sources each in the urban concept and prototype models – the two categories featured at the event – Indonesia bagged the first prize in four, Thailand and Malaysia in three each, while China and Singapore finished first in one apiece.
Pakistan, with two of its teams competing in the prototype (petrol gasoline) model, finished 11th and 12th in the 13-team category. PNEC-NUST (11th) from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) recorded an equivalent of 99.2 kilometres on a litre of fuel, while PIEASian Sarukhs (12th) from the Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences University posted 94.3. Virgin, from Thailand, the winners in that category recorded a whopping 1,796km.
Thailand, also the overall winners, posted 2,730.8km in their alternative petrol category in the prototype model.
The difference was loud and clear.
The one team that came close to giving competitors a run for their money was the one from the Ghulam Ishaq Khan (GIK) Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. Hammerhead Arc, as they chose to name it, competed in the prototype model and chose battery electric as its fuel source.
It finished sixth in their 14-team category with an equivalent distance of 205.6km, which – in the context of the race design – was not too far from the Thai winners that posted 263.4km.
But a difference was still clear and apparent.
Omar Sheikh, chairman and managing director of Shell Pakistan Limited and country chairperson for Shell companies in Pakistan, termed it a difference in cars and not the students.
His point was seconded by Ahmed Zia, a final year student at GIK Institute, who said ‘budget’ was the biggest reason behind the difference. “We start off with a very low budget,” Zia told The Expres Tribune. “We have simple tools. The other countries have time and a higher budget that allows them to build and design better.
“For us to be as competitive as Thailand, we needed a budget of Rs3 million. Right now, we have spent Rs1.5 million. If you double what we have spent right now, we would have been right up there [at the podium].”
A smart move, on part of the PNEC-NUST team, was to promote the event before their arrival. With the advent of social media, the Karachi team seemed to have spent a lot of time on spreading awareness about the event.
They won the off-track communications award because of their innovative approach and pocketed $2,000 — a good way to make the cash that other teams did through their on-track performance since the prize money was the same.
While the on-field performance left a little to be desired, it was the experience of competing with international standards that students took away with them from Manila.
What the event meant for others
One always wonders what can events like this, organised by a global group of energy and petrochemical companies, achieve in the long run.
Moving towards smarter mobility – the need for which has continued to evolve – fuel-efficient vehicles are the way forward. The mode of transport has evolved and will continue to do so. However, the challenges remain sustainable growth and development, coupled with efficiency at an affordable rate. All this while keeping the environmental footprint in mind.
A sound mind would start asking tons of questions right away. What about the role of the automobile industry in terms of adopting the designs students come up with since without that, the exercise’s success is difficult to quantify.
Jeremy Bentham, Shell Vice-President Global Business Environment, said the exercise was not just meant for the students. “The experience for the students is worth gold as they come to grips with challenges of working together and getting here,” said Bentham. “With regards to the work we do here, we are always working with vehicle companies. We are working in partnership with companies that were developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. We are part of projects that are demonstrating the practicality of such projects.”
While it may take time for the vehicle companies to adopt these designs and even more to bring them out on the road, the wheel has been set in motion.
Published in The Expres Tribune, February 17th, 2014.