NTU grabs top spots at Shell Eco-marathon Asia

Students from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have made Singapore proud by coming in first in two categories at this year's Shell Eco-marathon Asia, a competition for fuel efficiency and innovation.

NTU Venture 9, a slick three-wheeled racer with unique contoured solar panels, impressed the judges at the four-day international eco-car competition held at Luneta Park in Manila, Philippines.

The electric solar car beat more than 124 other teams from 16 countries in two categories in its debut at the races - marking NTU Singapore's second Technical Innovation award and more notably, its fifth Safety award.

Inspired by motorcycle racing, the NTU Venture 9 is equipped with a unique tilting ability that allows the vehicle to take-on sharp corners with little loss in speed. It also comes with hand-made contoured silicon solar cells, which allows for maximum harvesting of solar energy at every angle.

Team manager of the three-wheeler team Winston Tan, a final-year electrical and electronic engineering student, said the judges praised the engineering innovation which is at the core of the aerodynamic vehicle.

"The streamlined car's unique tilting mechanism adopted from motorcycle racing where racers would lean left or right during sharp turns to maintain their handling and speed won the judges over," said the 27-year-old.

NTU Venture 9 finished a respectable 4th place for the on-track race in the Prototype (Battery Electric) category, in a field of 12 qualifying cars from 30 entries.

The competition also saw its first ever, 3D-printed eco-car - the NTU Venture 8 - which was developed by students using cutting-edge 3D printing instruments,

It is also Singapore's first urban solar electric car, which has over 150 3D-printed parts mounted on a carbon fibre single shell chassis.

Ilmi Bin Abdul Wahab, 25, a Year 4 computer engineering student who led the development of 3D-printed car, said, "We are delighted to unveil the competition's first 3D printed car, which attracted a lot of attention from the public, the media, fellow competitors and the even the awards jury."

Associate Professor Ng Heong Wah, who mentored the two NTU Singapore teams, said the students had taken a leap of faith and decided to go with disruptive innovations instead of making marginal improvements over the previous versions.

"Using the latest engineering techniques learnt from their studies in NTU Singapore, the students have developed innovations such as leveraging on 3D printing technology to build NTU Venture 8 which is lightweight yet strong," said Prof Ng.

"For NTU Venture 9, the clever innovation is a tilting mechanism in that can 'lean' in the direction of the turn to avoid losing speed."

"The competition is tougher every year, with new teams joining the race. These awards are testament to the many months of hard work and perseverance of our students in preparing for the race, as well as their technological expertise and the advice given by their mentors," he added.

The two NTU Singapore teams consist of 16 students from the various engineering schools. Over a year, they built the cars at the Innovation Lab at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Provided by Nanyang Technological University