Indian Students To Compete In Singapore as Shell’s Make The Future Festival Returns For A Second Year
New Delhi: Our planet is looming under the dreadful consequences of climate change and pollution levels across the world, are soaring higher than ever. Asian countries like India and China have captured global attention and are at the centre of global discourse on saving the environment. However, all is not lost – thanks to the youth and millennials from these countries, who are rising to the challenge and devoting themselves to finding “smart” and innovative solutions to build a sustainable future.
One of the world’s longest-running student competitions, the Shell Eco-marathon Asia is a global programme that challenges bright young minds to design and build ultra-energy-efficient cars, thereby fostering innovative solutions to transform transportation. To be held in Singapore from March 8 to 11, the competition will witness participation from over 120 student teams from 18 countries across Asia Pacific and the Middle East; putting their self-built energy-efficient cars to the test.
Representing India, will be a contingent of 10 futuristic cars from 10 universities competing to be the most energy-efficient amongst all. This is the 8th year in a row that India is participating in the Asian leg of the Shell Eco-marathon. Prestigious institutes such as: Delhi Technical University, Indian Institute of Technology, Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, SRM University, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) University and, Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani; will participate and demonstrate their vision for fuel-efficient technologies. These bright young minds will be showcasing prototypes ranging from engines with a mileage of 350 km/hr, to going up to 150 kms, i.e, from Mumbai to Pune, in a single battery charge!
With the global focus on electric mobility and emissions control through fuel efficiency and usage of ethanol in automobiles, the Indian teams have also developed concept cars under various categories such as gasoline, battery electric and ethanol. The teams will be competing against each other as well as against their peers from other countries.
Since 2017, the Shell Eco-marathon has been a part of the Make the Future Singapore, a free festival of bright energy ideas and innovations for Asia, will take place at the Changi Exhibition Centre. Returning to Singapore for a second year, the public festival will be a platform for conversation, collaboration and innovation around the global energy challenge: how to generate more energy, while producing less CO2 emissions. At Make the Future Singapore, virtual reality and hands-on experiences will take visitors on a journey to explore bright ideas from around Asia, see what is happening now to power our world and get a glimpse of what the future of energy might look like. They will be able to discover what it’s like to generate electrical energy by dancing, play interactive games, build and race mini saltwater cars, and meet young scientists and energy start-ups.
Shell Eco-marathon Asia will include two key competitions this year. The longest running competition is the Mileage Challenge where teams compete to travel the farthest on the least amount of fuel. In 2017, the winning team of the Asian leg was efficient enough to travel 2,289 kilometres – the distance from Singapore to Chiang Mai, Thailand – on just one litre of fuel! The second Shell Eco-marathon competition to take place this year in Singapore is Drivers’ World Championship Asia. Introduced to the Shell Eco-marathon programme in 2016, Drivers’ World Championship challenges the best UrbanConcept teams to combine the proven energy efficiency of their car with the speed and skill of their driver, in a race to see who can cross the finish line first on the least amount of fuel.
Make the Future Singapore 2018 is held with support from the Singapore Tourism Board, Ministry of Education, Science Centre Singapore, Innosparks, Strides Transportation and Borneo Motors.