LOS ANGELES: High school students from 19 different schools in L.A and Orange County participated in the Hydrogen Horizon Automotive Challenge (H2AC), by building their own hydrogen fuel cell powered remote control car to compete in a four-hour endurance race, at the L.A Convention Center on Saturday, April 1.
The Horizon program, developed by Toyota with Horizon Educational, is a hands-on four month STEM program that helps high school students learn about global sustainability and gain career relevant skills by working in teams to complete long-term automotive engineering project.
Students begin the program by learning about climate change, renewable technologies, and various energy storage solutions, one being hydrogen fuel cells used to power the Toyota Mirai. For the next three months, teams spend hours after school designing, prototyping, and building their hydrogen fueled remote-control cars. On the day of the race at L.A Convention Center, students are seen excited and determined to put their months of building and learning to drive their cars to the test. Around the event,Toyota showcased the Toyota Mirai in various colors along with large displays of the hydrogen fuel cells.
As the race started and progressed, team members were seen working together within strict time constraints, continuously troubleshooting components of their cars, and learning to effectively lead their team under pressure.
Timo Lukkarinen, CEO of Horizon Educational, explains “[In this program] students develop skills that future employers will look for.”Toward the end of the race, teams were presented with more challenges than expected as they reported their cars were becoming difficult to control. Those teams quickly responded to the issue by assigning some members to adjust the tension in the wheels and other members to help slow down the car during various turns on the race track.
As the four-hour endurance race came to an end, all teams were ecstatic to hear the results. The schools who won the race based on endurance were Oakwood, Edison, and Mater Dei. Fremont won for Energy, El Toro won for Innovation, Oakwood won for Design, Kennedy won for Pitstop, and Mater Dei won for best Video. After students participated in the Hydrogen Horizon Automotive Challenge, they voiced strong interest in majoring in a STEM related field in college and pursuing a career in STEM in the future.
Ricky Trivedi
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