Science competition: combining speed and energy saving
© Hydros
Hydros and EPFL have launched a challenge for university science students: to build the fastest and most energy-efficient boat possible. Sign up now!
Speed is good. Moving fast while consuming as little energy as possible is even better. This is the challenge that Hydros and EPFL have devised for university science students. Participants will be required to construct a swift and energy efficient boat by optimizing a provided starter kit. Registrations are now open and the kits will be distributed in September. From that moment, the teams will have nearly a year to develop their ideas before competing on Lake Geneva off EPFL at the beginning of the 2014 summer.
The objective of the HydroContest is to educate future architects and engineers on energy issues, particularly in terms of maritime transport, as well as to encourage them to develop innovative technologies. The path started by these students’ work will be used to develop boats on an industrial scale, for both commercial and private requirements.
All on an equal footing
A maximum of twenty teams will be able to participate in the HydroContest and will each receive the starter kit developed by Hydros, consisting of a single boat engine with foils. The challenge is to optimize this prototype in order to reduce its energy consumption while improving its performance.
The teams will compete in two categories: small displacement boats (personal boats) and vessels for maritime transport (container ships, oil tankers). The vessel’s propulsion will be electric and the amount of available energy will be fixed.
"Apart from scientific research and technical development, the aim of the competition is to allow the different participants (students, academics, partners, professionals, institutions, etc.) to meet and exchange ideas, "said Jeremiah Lagarrigue, head of the Hydros project. The project was created in association with EPFL with the support of Lombard Odier & Cie and Services Industriels de Genève (SIG).
Information sessions will be held at EPFL laboratories likely to be interested in participating. For more information, please contact Zina Singer, Head of Key Account Management at Transportation Center of EPFL zina.singer @ epfl.ch, +41 21 693 62 89.