What do you get when you bring nearly a thousand engineering and science students and their student-built concept cars to compete on the streets of downtown Detroit? Sounds like Motor City Mayhem, but in fact, it's the Shell Eco-marathon Americas, challenging high school and university students to design, build and test ultra-energy efficient vehicles to see who can go the farthest using the least amount of energy.
"Bringing Shell Eco-marathon Americas to the Motor City is a natural. We think it will inspire innovation and collaboration across all ages and sectors in pursuit of a more sustainable mobility future," said Niel Golightly, Shell vice president of External Affairs. "Programs like Shell Eco-marathon Americas provide tangible hands-on, project-based examples of innovation, passion and teamwork in action and help inspire ways to use less energy, promote efficiency and sustainability."
More than 70 teams from Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States have already registered to compete in the Americas signature event set to hit the streets of downtown Detroit April 9-12, 2015. These teams are designing and building cars capable of achieving as much as 3,000 miles per gallon that run on a range of energies including hydrogen, electricity, gasoline, diesel, biofuels, fuel made from natural gas (GTL) or, new for 2015, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
"The [Shell] Eco-marathon project gives our students a chance to apply what they are learning in the classroom to a hands-on project. They use these fundamentals to design a car for a competition, but it ultimately trains them to work on the grand challenges that our society will face in the future," said Heath Tims, Associate Professor, Louisiana Tech University.
For more than 30 years, the Shell Eco-marathon has been challenging the innovative spirit of high school and college students around the world to design, build and test ultra-energy efficient vehicles capable of achieving thousands of miles per gallon equivalent, helping develop talent that will sustain both the automotive and energy industries moving forward.
Teachers and students can learn more about Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2015 including details on vehicle class requirements, official rules and prizes, or register a student team online until Nov. 17, 2014 at www.shell.com/semamericas
