HP Innovation Journal Issue 07: Summer 2017 | Page 23

SPECIAL REPORT
A race to a brighter energy future
HP teams with Shell to celebrate young innovators
the region the competition is taking place in.
Teams traveled a fixed number of laps around
the circuit at a set speed, with the number of
laps and distance varying slightly by region. At
the Americas competition for example, teams
drove 10 laps of a 0.6-mile circuit for a total
of six miles (almost 10 kilometers).
Winners from Asia, the Americas, and
Europe regions then competed in the Drivers’
World Championship in London at the end of
May. St. Thomas Academy’s team from the
U.S. persevered to be awarded the honor of
the quickest and most energy-efficient driver
in the world.
4,530 students from around the world competed in the 2017 Shell Eco-marathon
S
tudents from around the globe recent-
ly competed in the 2017 Shell Eco-
marathon. The Shell Eco-marathon is
a unique competition that challenges stu-
dents to design, build, and drive the most
energy-efficient car. These students were
on three different tracks, and represented 53
countries. A total of 4,530 students across
the three events — 1,000 Asia, 1,230 in the
Americas, and 2,300 in Europe — and a total
of 403 teams competed.
The Shell Eco-marathon competition
traces its roots back to 1939 when Shell Oil
Company employees in the USA made a friend-
ly wager on who could travel the farthest on
one gallon of gasoline. In 1985, the first for-
mal Shell Eco-marathon competition was held
in Europe and since then, it has expanded to
two more continents, includes many energy
types, and sparks passionate debate around
the future of automotive energy efficiency
and mobility.
Diversity, perseverance
and passion
Student teams competed in one of This year’s competition saw a growing num-
two vehicle classes: Prototype — futuris- ber of female participants and team leaders.
tic and highly aerodynamic vehicles — or In the Americas region alone, 53 female driv-
UrbanConcept — more practically-designed ers competed in the Americas event and there
vehicles that resemble today’s cars. The were 16 female team managers. Notably,
competition oc-
curred over sev-
eral days during
w h i c h tea m s
made as many
attempts as
possible to trav-
el the farthest
on the equiva-
lent of one liter
of fuel. Fuel effi-
ciency measure-
ments take into
account liters or
gallons depend-
ing on the rele-
vant measure for St. Thomas Academy’s Experimental Vehicle Team (EVT) won the Drivers World Championship
Issue 7 · Summer 2017 · Innovation Journal 23