Team SAE UMP Chapter named Best Malaysian Team at Shell Eco-Marathon Asia 2012

The winning team was selected by an independent panel of judges based on overall achievement in safety and technical performance, as well as the design and communication competence demonstrated during Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2012 held from July 4th to 7th this year.

Shell Eco-marathon is a unique competition that challenges students to build a vehicle that can travel the furthest using the least amount of fuel. The event seeks to inspire young innovators and engineers from around the region to develop new approaches to sustainable mobility.

“Shell’s intention is to be the most competitive and innovative energy company. Population growth, rising prosperity and rapid urbanisation will put increasing pressure on energy supplies over the next 40 years. More, cleaner energy will be needed from even more sources, against a backdrop of greater economic volatility and growing environmental pressures. Shell has been engaging stakeholders on the future of energy for many years,” said Simon Ong, Vice President for Shell Projects & Technology Offshore East.

The competition has been running in Europe for 28 years and in the United States since 2007. It made its debut in Asia in 2010. This year, the competition attracted 119 teams from 18 countries. Of these, 28 teams formed the Malaysian contingent - the largest contingent in the 2012 Shell Eco-Marathon Asia.

The teams from Malaysia fielded 18 prototype and ten urban concept vehicles, powered by gasoline, diesel, Gas to Liquids (GTL), fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), Ethanol E100, hydrogen, plug-in electricity and solar at the recent Asia challenge.

“I am pleased to see continued improvement in the standard of the Malaysian teams. Shell is proud to provide students the opportunity to explore their skills and experiment with technology and science, to develop creative and innovative mobility solutions through the Shell Eco-marathon challenge.” added Ong.

For 2012 Shell Eco-Marathon Asia, the Malaysian teams thought out of the box in constructing their vehicles with Team USM-EVT from Universiti Sains Malaysia entering a Battery Electric UrbanConcept vehicle constructed primarily of wood and rattan, while Team UPM Green Blitz from Universiti Putra Malaysia had a vehicle whose body was made entirely of recycled soft drink cans.

Of the 28 teams representing the nation, 17 teams successfully completed a valid run on the track. Malaysian teams eventually took home four on-track awards and one off-track award: the country’s best results ever in the history of the competition in Asia.

Chief Judge, Prof Dr Ishak Aris who is the Past President and Advisor of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International Malaysia, said: “The Malaysian teams have now proven that they have what it takes to win and be among the top teams in Asia.  The challenge for 2013 is to see how we can top our amazing achievement of 5 awards obtained this year”. 

For on-track, the Malaysian team were champions in the UrbanConcept Diesel and UrbanConcept Solar categories, and runners-up in the UrbanConcept Hydrogen and Prototype Hydrogen categories.

As for off-track, one of our teams was named the winner of the Eco-Design Award.

Prof Dr Ishak added: “It was amazing to see how much effort and passion went into building these vehicles.  The ingenuity and creativity of our young scientist and engineers are an inspiration to us all, and shows what we might expect from our cars of the future.” 

Prof Dr Ishak led a judging panel comprising Audrey Woon, Executive Committee Member of SAE International Malaysia, and Ir Loke Ean Bee, Fuels Group Manager, East, Shell Global Solutions.

Meanwhile, SAE-UMP Chapter’s achievement as the winner of the Best Malaysian Team at Shell Eco-Marathon Asia 2012 marked a new height of engineering technology and application at University Malaysia Pahang (UMP).

The team comprised 24 students from the faculties of mechanical, electrical, manufacturing and chemical engineering. Fielding a vehicle running on diesel, the team was named the champion of the in the “UrbanConcept” diesel category with a record run of 51 kilometres per kilowatt hour (km/kWh).

SAE-UMP Chapter’s Secretary, Mohd Najmi Bin Harith said: “It took us eight months to build ‘Jengking’ (‘scorpion’ in English) from scratch. ‘Jengking’ represents a car that endures challenges and thrives in all  types of conditions, be it weather, road surface and atmosphere.”

One of two categories at Shell Eco-marathon “UrbanConcept” offers an opportunity for teams to design and build fuel-economy vehicles that are close in appearance to today’s production type passenger cars.

Using fire retardant fibre glass as the main material for the vehicle body, Team SAE-UMP Chapter built a lightweight car which proved to consume less energy and reduce energy loss.

A strong deciding factor for the judges was the team’s big improvement over the previous year, and how the members applied the learnings in their 2012 car.

“Our car is actually a second generation vehicle based on its predecessor which competed at Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2011. Modifications and improvements were made to counter challenges faced with the earlier design. We researched and reviewed the invention extensively to find contributing factors in reducing weight and energy loss, while at the same time sustain enough structural strength and add on some Malaysia heritage element into interior.” added Mohd Najmi.

The result was an aerodynamic, aesthetically pleasing car that has solid overall showing in safety, technical innovation, design and communication.

Close to 80 students attended the prize giving ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur recently.

The next Shell Eco-marathon Asia will be held on 4-7 July 2013 at the Sepang International Circuit. Additionally, 2013 will be the final year Shell is holding Shell Eco-marathon Asia in Malaysia, ending the country’s four-year tenure as inaugural host. It will be moved to Manila, the Philippines in 2014.

As an educational project that encourages and fosters innovation in exploring potential solutions to both current and future transport and energy challenges, Shell Eco-Marathon is a clear demonstration of Shell's "Smarter Mobility" approach to speed up the global shift to cleaner, more energy-efficient road transport.

ENQUIRIES:

Norhayati Sulaiman-Adzhar, Media Relations 
N.Sulaiman@shell.com
Tel : +603 2091 3795

Note to Editors

About the Shell Eco-Marathon

Shell Eco-Marathon is a unique competition that challenges students to design, build and test energy-efficient vehicles that push the boundaries of fuel-efficiency and energy conservation.

The Shell Eco-Marathon is about distance, not speed. The competition challenges student teams to design and build energy efficient vehicles that travel the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel. 

Open to high schools, colleges, universities and technical institutes, the programme challenges student teams to put their innovations to the test in two vehicle categories: “Prototype,” futuristic, streamlined vehicles focused on maximizing fuel efficiency through innovative design elements, and “UrbanConcept,” focused on more “roadworthy” fuel-efficient vehicles. 

For both categories, teams can use any of the following fuels to power their vehicles: internal combustion class featuring diesel, gasoline, Shell Gas to Liquids (GTL), fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) and Ethanol E100. In the e-mobility class, the fuels are hydrogen, plug-in electricity and solar.

Shell has been running the Shell Eco-Marathon in Europe for 28 years. In 2007 and 2010, the event was brought to the United States and Asia respectively, with much success.

In terms of participation, Malaysia participated for the first time in the 2009 Shell Eco-Marathon Europe alongside 25 European countries and 12 Asian teams, through an entry from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Malaysia hosts the annual Shell Eco-Marathon Asia from 2010 till 2013. Thereafter it will be brought to another Asian country to host for the subsequent three (3) years.