A team of students from the Delhi Technological University has been crowned champion of Shell’s Pitch the Future competition, a series of competitions that bring together student teams from all over the world to tackle real-world energy challenges. The series is part of a new Virtual League Shell has introduced as part of its iconic global Shell Eco-marathon programme.
More than 130 teams from across Asia, Europe and the Americas had submitted entries for one or more Pitch the Future challenges. A total of 13 teams were selected to advance to the finals in four challenge categories, with three finalists in each category and a wild card entry for best newcomer team in e-mobility challenge. In addition to the Decarbonising Road Freight Transport category, challenges included Decarbonising the Home, with Shell Energy; Tracking and Reducing CO2 Emissions from Vehicles, with Microsoft; and Electric Vehicle Battery Recharging, with Shell Recharge. Shell has also partnered with Adobe to offer participating teams’ access to Adobe Creative Cloud for six months, and with Shell’s NXplorers team to host webinars to help teams think through best practices for problem solving.
The student team, which includes students from a range of disciplines, won the ‘Decarbonising Road Freight Transport’ challenge, supported by Shell Lubricants. For the challenge, the team had to develop an innovative concept that helps decarbonise road freight transport without compromising customer expectations of timely distribution and delivery. The team presented its ideas live to a panel of industry experts, which effectively focused on three key areas of improvement: logistics and supply chain; onboard carbon capturing and utilisation; and vehicle efficiency. These solutions stood out owing to their practical applicability, namely – cost and time effectiveness, positive impact on the social benefit for companies active in this sector, and compliance with industrial and public interest.
Mayank Dawar, Team Manager, DTU Supermileage, said, “Working on solving this real-world energy challenge was exciting and a great learning experience for our team. We are thrilled that all our hard work has been recognised and appreciated at both regional and global levels - a testimony to how we've strode in the right direction and are eager to see what comes next! We are keen on continuing our endeavours to utilise our knowledge and skill to find practical solutions for the benefit of the environment.”
Norman Koch, Global General Manager, Shell Eco-marathon, further added, “We congratulate DTU Supermileage for winning one of the categories in our inaugural Pitch the Future competition. They brought great energy, innovative thinking, and creativity to the competition and the judges were extremely impressed with their idea. I am proud of everyone involved in the Pitch the Future competition. The team here at Shell worked tirelessly to ensure it could Go ahead in the new normal and allow students from around the world to apply their STEM skills and passion to some of the world’s most pressing energy challenges.”
