Amount of funding awarded
$8,752.80
Budget Report
View budget report.
How the program has supported you
Arion is a recent addition to the UBC Supermileage Team’s vehicle lineup, having been introduced as a project in 2020. This project further pushes the team’s sustainability initiatives, focusing on renewable energy by leveraging the extensive fuel cell experience in the Greater Vancouver area. This experience has allowed the team to build, and continue to develop, a custom fuel cell stack for a competitive super-efficient single occupancy vehicle.
Support from PAF allows the team to continue research and development on Arion, while also supporting the team’s other two vehicles. For example, with PAF funding this year we were able to purchase components for a new dynamometer and create a new fuel cell control board. Funding also allows us to attend our competitions, which is an irreplaceable experience for students and an opportunity to validate our hard work.
Outcomes
The UBC Supermileage Team consists of 51 students from various engineering disciplines. Team projects are typically assigned so students get exposure to working on all three team vehicles, and can benefit from each vehicle such as Arion. This year students got exposure to areas including fuel cell design and control, composite manufacturing, and brake systems. The skills developed are transferable to real-world engineering applications.
Arion competed in the Shell Eco-marathon United States competition from April 10-13, 2022. This was the first Shell Eco-marathon competition since 2019, and the first ever competition that the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has attended. Thanks to the hard work of our team members, Arion passed technical inspection and was able to make it out onto the track. We completed 2 laps before technical issues ended the run early, and heavy rain prevented us from attempting another run.
