…Show promise in building fuel-efficient cars

BY EBELE ORAKPO

Despite the deluge of negative publicity be-devilling Nigeria occasioned by the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents, some Nigerian students have made the nation proud in far away Netherlands through their engineering feat.

Students from the universities of Lagos (UNILAG) and Benin (UNIBEN) showed great potentials at the recently concluded 2014 edition of Shell Eco-Marathon in Rotterdam, Netherlands. They showed that given the right environment and exposure, they can hold their own in science, technology and innovation as the two cars they produced passed the required safety and technical evaluation.

The challenge of the 2014 edition was for students from around the world to design, build and test ultra energy-efficient vehicles, vehicles that could be driven for thousands of kilometers on one litre of fuel. So winners are the teams that go the furthest using the least amount of energy.

UNIBEN’s car, Tuke-Tuke, built on campus within seven months, passed all the required technical evaluations, and was qualified to race in the Urban Concept category while UNILAG team produced AUTONOV II which participated in the Prototype category and also qualified to take part in the race.

Apart from making history as the first two teams from Sub-Saharan Africa to participate at the Marathon, both teams also joined an elitist group of 10 out of the 200 teams at the event that participated at the opening ceremony.

How we made it:
Professor Akii Ibhadode, Team Supervisor of UNIBEN team,  said he was surprised that Tuke Tukepulled through against all odds. “This is our first time at this competition and we were able to pass the technical inspection. We didn’t know that we will come this far with the 10 technical tests. I want to thank the Lord for what he has done, and the persevering spirit of the Nigerian helped us to pass the technical evaluation for us to run. My joy knows no bounds.”

Said Adekoya Adeyemi , year- five Production Engineering student and leader of UNIBEN team: “Even when we thought all hope was gone,we kept on checking and cross-checking and reworking the car based on the observations of the Assessors. I remember the very day we passed the weight test, we saw it as a miracle. We were told we failed and we had to go and rework certain aspects and we were able to sort out all the technicalities identified. God has been wonderful. Certain things happen that are beyond human wisdom. When we got here, we got scared because of the intensive scrutiny. We were also challenged by the high technology deployed by students from advanced countries. We thank God that we eventually scaled through. Interestingly, many of them did not pass. I feel like shedding tears right now.”

Continuing, he said: “The whole journey started last year when we came for a see-it-yourself tour here in The Netherlands. We came to see other competitors and study the competition. We were marveled at what students like us were doing. We then got challenged into going back home to build our own car. We are 15 on the team that built the cars. The key thing in the marathon is the environment, apart from innovation. We were to use eco-friendly materials. The weight is also a key issue in the competition. We used fibre material in building the body. We used steel because getting aluminum was a bit challenging. We sourced other materials locally also. Our brake pad, for instance, was produced from palm kernel and the interior fabric is our local adire material.”

UNILAG Team:

Said Segun Adebayo, 400 level Mechanical Engineering student: “I feel really excited. Before now, we used to see this kind of innovation on Google and YouTube and we used to be amazed at how far students from developed countries had gone in technology. We never knew we would soon build cars like this. Now it is not anything spectacular any more. While we were assembling the car, preparing for technical inspection, we saw students from great teams across the world being amazed by the design of our car. That alone gives us hope that we are good. Other teams have come here to say our car looks special and different, so I don’t feel intimidated.”

Shade Agbaje, a 400 level Mechanical Engineering student of  UNILAG had this to say: “We entered for the Prototype category using battery electric as our source of fuel. As an engineering student, innovation is my basic driver. My passion for joining this team is because I have always loved anything automobile right from when I was small. That was my main drive for applying to study engineering in the first place. I found engineering as a good place to build my passion and dream.”

The Process:
Describing the process that led to the development of AUTONOV II, Abraham Imohiosen, year-five Electrical/Electronics Engineering student and Team Manager of UNILAG team said: “To produce the vehicle, we had to first of all identify what we needed to do. We had to work in the mechanical electricial and material engineering units and we had to do a bit of publicity and source for sponsorship. We interviewed students of the faculties of engineering and sciences that would help with the task, and we found a few that were highly distinguished in their classes. I feel excited and proud to be representing Nigeria and my school. It has been a very engaging experience for me and other students.

Motivator:
Shell Upstream International’s Vice-President, Communication, Nebahat Albayrak, took more than an official interest in Nigeria (one of her spheres of coverage) and insisted at one of her leadership team meetings that Nigerian students should compete at the marathon. She worked closely with Shell Group and Nigerian colleagues to ensure that  students from ABU, Zaria, UNIBEN and UNILAG travelled to Rotterdam in 2013 to observe Shell eco-marathon Europe for that year.

Nebahat (commomnly referred to as the other Nigerian) said: “…when we thought about this journey last year, nobody believed that we will have Nigerian satudents competing at Shell Eco-marathon Europe. I will like to personally congratulate you on this achievement.”

Royal Dutch Shell Plc CEO, Ben Van Beurden, who visited the Nigerian teams during the competition said: “We have been doing this for over 30 years. The fact that we have a Nigerian team here participating is an incredible milestone.  Africa is the continent of the future. It has so much potential, so much dynamism, and so much growth today that I think this actually is going to be a very important milestone going forward.”

Ike Mowete, professor of engineering/electromagnetics and Team Supervisor for UNILAG team said the competition had motivated the students into moving from laboratories to real life scenarios.

“The significance of this is that we have moved from the usual pattern of staying on the drawing board, stimulating, without getting to the physical hardware.”