Students Design Energy Efficient Cars to Win Brazil Marathon
Guest blog post by my colleague Dan Siqueira, Siemens PLM Software
This past weekend Infiniti Red Bull Racing team became Formula One World Champions here in Brazil. The race was at the Interlagos race track in Sao Paulo,which is the same place we hosted the 10th edition of the Maratona da Eficiencia Energetica (Energy Efficiency Academic Marathon) over the summer.
Siemens is a sponsor of the the Brazilian Marathon competition and supplies teams with Solid Edge software. Teams use the software to design and compete for the best energy consumption on small one-person cars. The vehicles weight a minimum of 50 kilos and race at a minimum speed of 25 kilometers per hour.
What does the marathon competition have in common with Formula One? Of course it is not the speed and not even the budget. But students are setting their own records that will impact future Formula One drivers. Did you know that Unioeste (a university on the west side of Parana) achieved a gasoline consumption of 736 kilometers per liter (Km/L)? This record was established in 2011.
During the one week competition59 cars from 31 different academic institutions raced. Teams from seven Brazilian states – Sao Paulo (SP), Parana (PR), Santa Catarina (SC), Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Minas Gerais (MG), Bahia (BA) and Maranhão (MA) -competed on three different categories: Ethanol, Gasoline and Electric.
The 2013 Ethanol winner was the team from Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia from São Paulo with the mark of 233 Km/L. On the Gasoline category the winner team was also from Intituto Mauá de Tecnologia with the mark of 406 Km/L. And on the electric side the winner was Escola de Engenharia de Sao Carlos – SP with 42,492 KJoules.
All the designs done on Solid Edge were competing for the best project category. The evaluation criteria were the creation of a digital prototype, fidelity to the physical prototype and modeling steps.
On the third place we had the Federal University of Santa Catarina State with the electrical car MILIWATT.
In second place was the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Sul with the IFCAR, losing for just a few missing components.
And the winner once more was the Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia from Sao Paulo taking the triple crown with their electric car Dedo Portugues:
Emerson Fittipaldi – the first and two time Brazilian worldwide Formula One champion helped celebrate the winners and give them their well-deserved prizes.
And how can a Formula One pilot not want to drive one of these designs? Take a look at a former Formula One pilot in an energy efficient Solid Edge designed car:
So what do these Marathon winners have in common with Formula One World Champions?
Both have Siemens PLM software to design better!
Learn more about Siemens and Infiniti Red Bull Racing. Get your free student edition of Solid Edge today and design the next championship car.
