We are well aware that the world is heading towards lessening the effect of global warming through subtle yet significant efforts like adapting to electric vehicles and lower-carbon emitting transports.
What if we tell you that Nepal is also being a part of it? Yes, you got it right! For the first time, Shireto, a team from Nepal is competing in Shell Eco Marathon with its battery-electric vehicle (EV). This team consists of 10 engineering students from IOE Thapathali Campus, who are intensely focused on designing, manufacturing, and testing electric vehicles that could achieve the highest energy-efficiency as much as possible.
Let Us Know About the Shell Eco Marathon First
Shell Eco Marathon is a global competition for high school and university student teams, where they could compete with the sustainable and high energy efficient vehicles with low or no carbon emissions which they have designed. Shell Eco-marathon provides a collaborative platform to get hands-on experience in achieving ultra-energy-efficiency. This competition is sponsored by Shell Energy, a company with its ambition to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, or sooner.
Shell Energy has been organizing marathons since 1985 in the United States, Europe and Asian countries where the teams compete between electric, petroleum and hydrogen fuel powered vehicles. In this competition, the innovative design that gives more mileage by consuming less energy stands out amongst all. The next Shell Eco Marathon is going to be held in September 2021.
This marathon provides a platform to the STEM students from across the globe to design, build and operate some of the world’s most energy-efficient vehicles. All in the name of collaboration and innovation, students’ bright ideas help to shape a lower carbon future for all. The students can form a team with a maximum of 10 members and then simply register to participate if they have designed something that would contribute to the vision and mission of Shell.
About Team Shireto
With an aim to contribute to a sustainable future, a group of multidisciplinary students from IOE Thapathali Engineering Campus formed a team named “Shireto”. The name “Shireto” implies the cold autumn breeze indicating the beginning of the new season. Team Shireto has resembled the same meaning to their team as it symbolizes a humble beginning of technological innovation in the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry of Nepal.
The team consists of 10 members from the same college, which is mentored by the faculty advisor Subodh Kumar Ghimire. The core members include Saugat Pandey as Team Manager; Anil Khadka and Yugen Maharjan in Design/Simulation; Dhan Prasad Pradhan in Technical team; Bhuwaneshwar Dahal and Bibek Paudel in Fabrication; Aman Shrestha in Logistics; Ojashwi Sharma in Communications/PR, Kritik Niraula in Electrical Team and Swornim Shrestha in Electrical System Design.
They are the first team from Nepal to make an energy efficient electric vehicle to compete in Shell Eco Marathon 2021.
The Motive to Participate
Shell Eco Marathon is a playground for the young and innovative minds to create a fuel-efficient and sustainable vehicle with their highest ability.
When being asked about the core motive to participate in this competition, Swornim Shrestha, Shireto’s Electrical Control System Lead replied, “In Nepal when we see these kinds of projects, we usually buy the ready-made parts and assemble them. Even though these projects look super complex , most of the task is to read the manual-book and follow what it says. The Shell-Eco Marathon was challenging to us in a way that we had to get our hands dirty, open our engineering books and get into hard core engineering design tasks to make the car fuel efficient.
From motor controller to chassis and the outer shell, we have done extensive research on these individual tasks to get the best results. In simple words, the Shell Eco Marathon is challenging and we are ready to walk through this path. We are aiming to make this EV run 150 km per 1 unit of battery power. For that, we are preparing the outer shell of this vehicle in an aerodynamic design that would have control over the air and speed.”
The team is participating on the regional level at first. The total estimated cost for the whole designing process and participating in the competition sums up to about NRS 10 lakhs. The exciting fact is that this team has got a funding of NRS 5 lakhs from Golchha Organization. Techsathi wishes all the best to team Shireto and admires their efforts in leveraging their knowledge in technological advancement that could lead to a better future.
