Unilag Students Show Off Their Eco Car Built For International Competition

 

A group of students of the University Of Lagos Unilag, who have built their own version of energy-efficient car for the international Shell Eco-marathon, narrates about the challenges they face and the future of such a prototype.The mentioned event is being hosted by three continents. This year’s competition took place in Manila, Philippines, February 6-9, 2014, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, May 15-18, 2014 and Houston, the U.S.A., April 24-27, 2014.

Abraham, who is a 500 level Computer Engineering student at UNILAG, said that this year two more teams from Nigeria were building their fuel-efficient vehicles, in accordance with the invitation by Shell Nigeria: University of Benin (UNIBEN) and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU).The participants of Eco-marathon are divided into several energy types (Gasoline, Diesel, Battery Electric, Alternative fuel and Hydrogen) and two categories (Prototype or UrbanConcept). UNILAG team entered the Battery Electric category.The purpose of Shell-funded project is use eco-friendly materials and to create a car, which would show on track the best speed possible at the lowest energy consumption possible. The price of the machine also matters. Every competition has a prize called communication award. It is usually granted to the team who succeeds in publicizing, communication with the people around and building a proper community around the project. Abraham told that he gathered his team through some of the newspapers and through the UNILAG mobile. The supervising lecturers helped to pick the most-prepared students from the huge number of volunteers. The first challenge of the group was lack of experience. However, the lecturers gave the proper support to the team and got the things going.Secondly, some essential components, especially electrical, were not available in Nigeria. They had to be ordered in the UK and delivery time was quite long.Thirdly, the lack of some tools and equipment slowed down the project. Some of the operations were completed manually.

Logistics challenges, misunderstanding between the students and the vendors and several other issues have also slowed them down. But, according to Abraham, this was totally worth it. The six-month-long project was very engaging and allowed the whole team to learn more, to meet many interesting people.The team realised that the newcomers stand no chance to beat the experienced and innovative competitors. The main focus is to meet the minimum technical requirements of the competition. Passing through this stage, qualifying for the race, may be considered as a small victory. The team plans to upgrade and optimise the vehicle for future competitions.
The team manager, Abraham Imohiosen, also did not forget to list some of the contributors: Professor Mowete – Team Lead;
Source: The Nation