"Prometheus" team awarded in Shell Eco Marathon 2016 competition
The research group "Prometheus", composed of volunteer students of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (ECE-NTUA) participated for eighth consecutive year in the internationally renowned European fuel economy competition Shell Eco-Marathon 2016, organized under the auspices of European Commission in London on July 1 st – 3 rd .
During this competition, the team won two awards of the five granted in total, among more than 200 European participating teams of students coming from 29 countries. Specifically, the team was awarded the "Technical Innovation Award" in recognition to the advanced, almost-autonomous energy saving control system developed for its entirelyhome-constructed electric vehicle. The team was also granted the "Communication Strategy Award" based on the structured effort to raise public awareness for ecological transportation issues as well as for its successful campaign enabling important sponsor ttraction even from overseas.
During the race, the team competed persistently in the new track of London, including steep parts, significantly rough road regions and driving challenges. These conditions, in conjunction with blown tires and vehicle bottlenecks encountered in narrow track regions, did not allow the vehicle "Pyrforos II" to achieve its full capabilities. Despite these difficulties, in the last effort it managed to attain 287 km with one kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy, constituting the national record for this track and ranking it in the 16th place among 51 participating teams in the category Prototype Battery Electric vehicles.
It may be noted that the electric vehicle drive system does not include any commercial parts and it is entirely home constructed by the members of the team, implementing expertise and technologies developed in the Laboratory of Electrical Machines and Power Electronics, resulting in the creation of a special vehicle sub-category in this competition. The team effort this year, has integrated these technologies and the experience acquired in previous years, by developing an improved prototype single passenger prototype vehicle with semi-autonomous energy saving drive system and extensive telemetry capabilities.
The previous team successes also include a prestigious prize awarded among more than 180 European participations in the competition of 2013, namely the «Best Team Spirit off-track award 2013». This award was assigned in recognition of the team spirit, the hard work and difficulty tackling during the competition, as well as for the assistance offered to other teams and promotion of the Greek culture.
The team "Prometheus" is composed of the following engineering degree students: Armouti Ioanna, Gallos Konstantinos, Georgopoulos Dimitrios, Davaris Stavros, Karamountzou Foteini, Karantoni Foteini-Athina, Kylintirea Niki, Mitsi Eleni, Bougiouklis Andreas, Ntavarinos Nikolaos, Evangelos Ntouros, Tzounas Georgios. PhD candidate Alexandros Alexandrou participates in the team, PhD candidate Krasopoulos Christos is the team leader and Professor Kladas Antonios is the team academic responsible.
More information on “Prometheus” team can be found at: Web-site: www.sem.ntua.gr Facebook: www.facebook.com/sem.ntua Twitter: @Ntua_Sem