THE young have already set their eyes on only one thing: the future. And here in the country, they have something to look forward to in 2015 as the Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) was recently launched at the Plaza Mayor of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila.
The much-anticipated event is set to be held from February 25 to March 1, 2015, on a special racetrack in Rizal Park. The event, which will be staged for the second time in the Philippines, promises to be bigger and better. Earlier this year, the country had hosted the event from February 6 to 9, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the Shell companies in the country.
During the launch, Bobby Kanapi, Pilipinas Shell vice president for communications, led the ceremonial run using the T-400 eco-car, a vehicle designed by the host school’s UST Eco-Tigers1 team. The T-400 runs on gasoline and is UST’s entry in the urban category of the 2014 SEM Asia.
“SEM Asia started about 13 years ago, with the different Shell companies competing against each other to see which is the most ‘efficient’ vehicle, with efficiency measured in terms of which car can travel farthest using the least amount of fuel,” Kanapi related.
“That started the whole thing, and then we invited universities to design cars and encouraged their students to build the units—first in Europe, then in America, and eventually in Asia in 2010. We really have to give it to the Philippines, because we now have a lot of universities in this country willing to build their own cars. We are actually getting more participants this year compared to last year.”
The global event has been bringing together aspiring, young engineers around the world, who are encouraged to develop fuel-efficient vehicles of the future. They also learn to utilize energy mix that includes biofuels, such as ethanol, compressed natural gas and gas-to-liquids (GTLs), apart from conventional gasoline and diesel. SEM classifies original car inventions into prototype and urban-concept vehicles, which compete against each other in the areas of speed, mileage and other technical and design aspects.
In fact, the idea of the SEM originated in 1939 at a Shell research laboratory in the US. It initially served as a friendly wager among scientists to find out who could get the most miles per gallon of fuel from their vehicle. It was in 1985 when the SEM was launched in France.
SEM Asia was launched in 2010 in Malaysia, where it was held until 2013. The Philippines is set to host the event until 2016.
In 2015 a record-breaking total of 178 student teams from 20 countries across the entire Asian region are expected to participate. Contingents from Australia, Bangladesh, Oman, Saudi Arabia and South Africa will also be entered for the first time in Asia. In the Philippines a record number of 34 entries from 25 engineering colleges and universities will be fielded, compared to 15 teams from nine schools onsite in the previous stint.
UST, one of the participating schools from the Philippines, which had been participating in the SEM Asia since its inception in 2010, is setting its sight on achieving a modest goal for its T-400.
Paolo Jose, team manager of the UST Eco-Tigers1, said in an interview: “What we would like to do now for the upcoming event is to improve on our performance and, hopefully, win at least a special award.”
Their T-400 established a fuel efficiency of 172.3 kilometers per liter in its last outing. The entry from UST was actually considered the best-performing vehicle among Philippine schools that competed at the time. They were also named fifth-best in Asia.
Sixteen other schools have been added to the list this year. These are Ateneo de Davao University, Cebu Institute of Technology, De La Salle Dasmariñas, Feati University, Holy Angels University, Malayan Colleges Laguna, Manuel L. Quezon University, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, National University, New Era University, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Southern Luzon State University, Technological University of the Philippines-Manila, University of the East, University of the Philippines Diliman and University of Mindanao.
Story & photo by Ronald Rey M. de los Reyes
Image credits: Ronald Rey M. De Los Reyes