On the last day of Shell Eco Marathon (SEM) Asia 2018 competition in Changi Exhibition Centre Singapore on Sunday (11/3), the SEMAR UGM team made a surprise. After a fierce competition with other participants from across Asia, the UGM team finally made its biggest achievement whilst joining this competition.
The SEMAR UGM team sent two vehicles after a long selection process, which were SEMAR PROTO ELECTRIC and SEMAR URBAN GASOLINE.
SEMAR PROTO ELECTRIC has made a fantastic performance which is fourth winners in the proto battery-electric category.
“This achievement is extraordinary bearing in mind that the SEMAR PROTO ELECTRIC had just made its debut in the competition. We learned many experiences from the event for future improvement,” said chairman of SEMAR team, Antonius Adhika, on Sunday (12/3).
Doanta Edison, coordinator of SEMAR PROTO ELECTRIC, said there was a problem in the bearing which was broken at the end of the game, so it could not improve its mileage.
The other UGM car, SEMAR URBAN GASOLINE competing in the urban category, has won the second place in the Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) class and the first place in the most prestigious category which is speed, namely Driver’s World Championship (DWC) at Asia level. This made SEMAR UGM entitled to go through to the Driver’s World Championship at the world level to be hosted in London, UK, 8 July 2018.
Dr. Jayan Sentanuhady, SEMAR UGM supervisor, said DWC was the most prestigious event for student automotive competitions. Speed, reliance, and efficiency will be tested there.
“This is the difficult part, because it needs the right mixture between engine performance, body aerodynamics, vehicle structure reliance and driver’s habit. So, the challenge has been on how to balance them all,” said Jayan.
Eventually, the hard work done by the team for about one year has paid off. The SEMAR team promised to do their best in London to make Universitas Gadjah Mada and Indonesia proud at the international level.
“SEMAR UGM would like to extend our greatest appreciation to the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Department, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Innovation Center for Automotif – UGM, Lab Teknologi Mekanik, PT Badak LNG, Gulaku, Tanoto Fondation, BNI 46, and others that have supported the SEMAR team,” said Naviga Widowati, non-technical coordinator of SEMAR UGM.