YOGYAKARTA- On Thursday (27/1) a total of six participants from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of UGM participated in the contest of durable and fuel efficient vehicle in the courtyard of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. These students followed the contest to meet the course of competition project. Besides the participants, dozens of other Engineering students also looks eager to see the event. Galih Oktavian Putra, coordinator of the activities, said that the contest is divided into two categories, namely fuel efficiency and durability.
"Participants are required to go around the 2 km path in stages, and the vehicles have to be durable," said Galih on the sidelines of the race.
Galih added this race used a prototype vehicle with the lawn mower of 28 CC, steel frame, tires, steering and filled with 100 cc gasoline mix. Each group, said Galih, comprised a minimum of 19 students.
Each group has different number of participants. One of them has 19 students or even more," said the student of Mechanical Engineering class of 2008
“Meanwhile, the course coordinator of the competition project, Dr Suyitno, S.T, M.Sc., added that for the competition project course, students are also required to participate in competitions that are contested today. Besides aiming to apply the science, this event also aims to instill winning mentality to the students.
"In addition to applying the science, at the same time we instill winning mentality to the students," said Suyitno.
For the competition to design fuel efficient and durable vehicles, Suyitno added, the students are quite enthusiastic. Later, the outcome of the race is possible to be developed to become a type of lightweight vehicle that can be used on campus within a short distance.
"The prototype results can be improved later to create a kind of light vehicle to be used in the campus area within a short distance," said Suyitno.
Suyitno described that for the contest each year a different theme is raised. Last year it was the folding bike design. This time, the Department of Mechanical Engineering provides assistance ranging from provision of laboratory equipment to funding. For each group the department provides funds up to Rp 1.6 million. "The rest of fund is met collectively by students. The theme is different from last year theme which was the folding bike," he explained.