INNOVA team builds car for international race

The project INNOVA team is ready to push the pedal for the medal.

Nearly a year after its hydrogen fuel cell-powered urban concept vehicle placed second in its category during the Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2023 regional competition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Montgomery County Community College team is gearing up for another shot at the title.

This year, Engineering Science students and advisors are confident their trip back to the Brickyard will yield even greater success and they’ll punch themselves a ticket to the world driving championship in Britain.

The Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2024 regional competition will be held April 3-7 again in Indianapolis. The annual academic program “challenges talented students to design and build cars, considering technical and behavioral factors to achieve game-changing energy efficiency results,” according to its website.

The project INNOVA team includes MCCC students Ruby Armor, Franzine Bagalawis, Evan

Baltz, Alivia Case, Alvin Munoz Cervantes, Katherine Cocar, Russell Cole, Joseph DeFazio, Odain Forrester, Liam Gundersen, Quentin Haines, Jake Hamburg, Paul Jacobs, Gabrielle Joella, Rob Kay, Nate Mayer, Joseph Morris, Val Pero, Evan Pickel, Thomas Quinn, Sabrina Turner, Josue-Guinto Veronica and Ian White.

High hopes

Engineering Science Professor and project INNOVA faculty advisor William Brownlowe believes the design of this year’s vehicle is built to win.

“This is by far our lightest chassis. Our power train is more efficient. We’re also going to use a streamlined body made of carbon fiber,” he said. “We’ve never attempted something like this before, but we have a good, talented team with skilled members this year with automotive experience.”

The project INNOVA team has sought to participate in the Shell competition since building a first-generation vehicle design in 2015. It actually qualified for the competition in 2017 in Detroit with a vehicle that weighed 320 pounds but didn’t make it past the vehicle inspection. Then again

PHOTO BY ERIC DEVLIN Project INNOVA team members at Montgomery County Community College have worked all year long on building a hydrogen fuel cell-powered urban concept vehicle from scratch to compete in the 2024 Shell Eco-marathon Americas regional competition in Indianapolis April 3-7.