General News
27 August, 2024
Brightest minds head overseas
Some of Australia's brightest young automotive minds will head to the US next month to compete in the world final of the Horizon Hydrogen Grand Prix after progressing through the Australian qualifying round.
Students from New South Wales and Wodonga gained the right to take on the rest of the world by shining at Toyota Australia’s Centre of Excellence in Altona.
Toyota both hosted the event and provided a grant of $100,000 to schools in Victoria to help with the designing, engineering, building and racing of hydrogen-fuel-cell electric remote control racecars in the grand prix-style race.
The H2GP educational program is run by the European-based Horizon Educational Group that designs, produces and distributes STEM education kits and teaching materials around the globe to help students develop renewable-energy technology skills through hands-on learning.
Toyota Australia is committed to supporting STEM education and provides one per cent of the company’s pre-tax profits annually to a range of not-for-profit and education organisations.
As part of this, the Toyota Community Trust Fund provided grants to 10 schools to compete in the Horizon Hydrogen Grand Prix.
Toyota Australia vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley said the company was committed to further developing hydrogen-fuel-cell technology as part of its multi-pathway approach to decarbonisation, and the Horizon Hydrogen Grand Prix was a great initiative to encourage the next generation of designers and engineers to learn about the technology and its potential to help drive a more sustainable future.
“By supporting this event and helping several Victorian schools run the semester-long STEM program we're able to further raise awareness of this vital zero-CO2 tailpipe emission technology, particularly among students who will be the next generation of leaders at the forefront of decarbonisation,” Mr Hanley said.
Fuel cells generate electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen in a chemical reaction, the only emissions being water vapour.
This makes them an excellent source of CO2-free emission power generation for a wide variety of applications.
Toyota is involved in developing the hydrogen economy in Australia with its own hydrogen production, storage and refuelling facility at Altona, leasing of a limited number of its Toyota Mirai FCEVs (fuel-cell electric vehicles) to several progressive organisations, and recently started assembling and distributing the EODev GEH2 hydrogen fuel cell generator for stationary power supply.
Over the course of the in-school program, students explore topics ranging from climate change and renewable energy solutions to automotive engineering, chemistry and physics concepts.
They then apply these learnings to design a racecar using 3D modelling software before prototyping and constructing the finished remote-control vehicle from a range of components produced by Horizon Educational Group.
More information: www.h2grandprix.com/ and www.toyota.com.au/community/trust