Filipino students advance to global innovation competition finals

Pitting CO₂-emission-reduction app against top teams from Europe, Americas

Tackling CO₂ emissions in a way that helps users save on fuel costs through a mobile application, Team Alamat UP from the University of the Philippines-Diliman was crowned Asia’s Champions, and have advanced to the final stage of Shell’s Pitch The Future competition.

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A series of competitions that bring together student teams from all over the world to solve real-world energy challenges, Pitch the Future is part of a new Virtual League that Shell has integrated into its Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) program, one of the world’s leading student engineering competitions that has developed youth STEM skills.

Annually, SEM invites students from across the world to design, build, and operate some of the world’s most energy-efficient vehicles, and brings to life Shell’s mission of powering progress together by providing more and cleaner energy solutions. Done in a spirit of collaboration and innovation, the competition is designed to harness and realize students’ bright ideas to shape a lower carbon future for all.

Norman Koch, Global General Manager, Shell Eco-marathon, said: “We congratulate Alamat UP from the University of the Philippines-Diliman for making the finals of our inaugural Pitch the Future competition. Our judges were hugely impressed by the great energy, innovative thinking, and creativity that the team brought to the competition. We are looking forward to their final presentation. Pitch the Future is an incredible opportunity for students to apply their STEM skills and passion for developing solutions to some of the world’s most pressing energy challenges, and it is a welcome addition to the Shell Eco-marathon program.”

The student team, which includes nine students studying a range of disciplines, is one of three groups to make it to the global finals of the ‘Tracking and Reducing CO₂   Emissions from Vehicles’ challenge, which is supported by Microsoft.

For this particular challenge, the team designed the CO₂ Emission Reduction Operation mobile application, or CERO, which helps users track both fuel consumption and resulting emissions.  Through the app, users forgo the need to install external sensors. At the same time, they use it to analyze their own behavior when it comes to carbon emission. The app gives them “eco-driving” suggestions that help them save on fuel costs while also reducing their carbon footprint.

The team will go against the regional winners from both Europe and the Americas and present its ideas live to a panel of industry experts on the 19th and 20th of November. Highlights from the pitches will then be made available online for the public to view. Shell will announce the winners on  December 11.

More than 130 teams from across Asia, Europe, and the Americas 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 the Best Newcomer Team in the e-mobility challenge.

The top five entries per region per challenge will receive 25 Shell Eco-marathon Virtual League points. Regional winners of each mini-challenge will be awarded $750 plus 50 Virtual League points. The global winner of each challenge will receive an additional $1,500 and a further 100 Virtual League points.

In addition to the Tracking and Reducing CO_2­ Emissions from Vehicles category, the other challenges included Electric Vehicle Battery Recharging, with Shell Recharge; Decarbonising the Home, with Shell Energy; and Decarbonising Road Freight Transport, with Shell Lubricants. Shell also partnered with Adobe to offer participating  teams access to Adobe Creative Cloud for six months. Shell’s NXplorers also hosted webinars to help the contestants use best practices in thinking for problem-solving.

See here for more information on Pitch the Future and the challenges, including more information on the teams that made the final stage of the competition.