This Thursday, we attended the tenth edition of the Sustainable Urban Race (SURBANRACE) at the El Carmen Campus—an event organized by the Higher Technical School of Engineering at the University of Huelva (ETSI) and sponsored, among other entities, by the Gabitel Chair on Hydrogen. The competition brings together secondary school, vocational training, and high school students who put their creativity and knowledge to the test by designing and building energy-efficient and sustainable vehicles.
The SUR project aims to raise students’ awareness of energy and mobility challenges in urban environments. To achieve this, participants are required to apply their creativity and ingenuity in the design and construction of energy-efficient and sustainable vehicles. The educational initiative challenges teams to build a solar-powered electric vehicle with a minimum of three wheels, capable of transporting one person. All teams are provided with a standardized motor kit supplied by the organizers. Additionally, each edition includes a series of technological challenges that teams must overcome, which are defined annually by the organization.
Each prototype must undergo four tests: energy efficiency, speed, maneuverability, and a popular vote through social media. The jury also evaluates aspects such as aesthetics and the technological developments integrated into the vehicles. Additionally, whenever the student demographics of the school allow, teams should be made up of approximately 50% members of each gender.
This edition brought together more than 450 students and over 30 teachers, distributed across 12 teams from high school, secondary education, and vocational training programs in the provinces of Huelva, Seville, and Granada.
SURBANRACE, MOTO ETSI UHU, and SCIENCITY are three academic and training activities of the University of Huelva (UHU) that have received support since the creation of the Gabitel Chair on Hydrogen in 2021, as part of its commitment to promoting education and training—one of its three core pillars, alongside research and knowledge transfer.
