JAKARTA-Vice-President Boediono together with Minister of National Education, M. Nuh, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Darwin Zahedy Saleh, accompanied by Country Chairman and President Director of PT Shell Indonesia, Darwin Silalahi, on Saturday afternoon (14/5) officially released energy-efficient car, SEMAR UGM, in the south parking lot of Istora Senayan in Jakarta. Semar UGM, along with several other teams from University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Surabaya Institute of Technology, and Pontianak State Polytechnic will follow Asian Shell Eco-Marathon competition (SEM), 6-9 July 2011, at Sepang, Malaysia.
After delivering his remarks, the Vice-President even made time to go inside the prototype car which is the automotive product of Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering UGM. He looked excited when he received an explanation of the characteristics of SEMAR car by student of SEMART UGM Team.
Meanwhile in his remarks, Boediono was proud of the achievement of Indonesian students at the SEM competition in 2010. Indonesia, in Boediono’s view, will have a bright future if its young people and students are creative and innovative in designing energy-efficient cars.
"The young generation should demonstrate achievements as much as possible if they want a bright future of the Indonesian nation," he said.
The Vice-President assessed the achievements of students will indirectly provide inspiration and teamwork to other young generations. He hoped in the upcoming SEM 2011, Indonesian team could achieve a better performance than in 2010.
"Well, in terms of teamwork, Indonesia has many clever people but they’re bad in teamwork," the Vice- President explained.
In the same place, Minister M. Nuh welcomed the participation of the Indonesian team in the SEM 2011. Besides as a platform to demonstrate the ability of Indonesian students in creating innovations in the field of automotive technology, this event will be a means for preparing the human resources that have a competent knowledge of automotive technology which is energy saving and eco-friendly.
"The competition also serves as experience and measures ability in competing with other nations," Nuh said.
The same opinion was expressed by Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh. The participation of Indonesian university students shows the concern of the young generation on new and renewable energy conservation through the creation of new technology in the automotive field.
"And so the utilization of new and renewable energy such as bio-diesel or other ethanol needs to be maximized," Darwin said.
Meanwhile, Darwin Silalahi explained that the SEM 2011 will later be followed by 121 teams from 14 countries in Asia, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Brunei, Philippines, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, China, Japan, and Iran.
"In Asia, it is the second event after the first one that was previously held in Malaysia. We hope young people in Asia will have concerns about the energy crisis that is happening in the world currently," Darwin Silalahi said.
PIC of SEMAR UGM car, Dr. Jayan Sentanuhady, accompanied by Managing Director of SEMART Team, Alfian Fisa, explained that the participation of SEMAR car is the second in the SEM. In the previous period Semar car successfully won the Top 10 of Autodesk Inventor Design. Later, UGM will include two types, namely Prototype Semar and Urban Semar.
This prototype vehicle is designed to achieve fuel efficiency as extreme as possible so it can travel a maximum distance with one liter of gasoline. Engine is designed to have thermal and volumetric efficiency as maximum as possible at a certain equilibrium point. "It has specification of long stroke engine with high torque characteristics at low engine speed to repress fuel consumption," Jayan explained.
The engine of this SEMAR prototype is in the form of gasoline 115 cc with alloys aluminum frame material and fiberglass body. It is 2.8 m in length, 0.65 m in height and 1 m in width.
Meanwhile, Urban SEMAR is a vehicle with city car concept which is energy-efficient and low exhaust emissions. The engine uses 4 stroke 125 cc capacity with gasoline octane-95. It is 2.3 m in length, 1.3 m in height and 1.3 m in width.