austraLasia #2677 "Team Grigio” back from Shell-Eco Marathon
MANILA: 16 July 2010 -- “Team Grigio” is the catchy moniker for
FIN’s Don Bosco Technical College Mandaluyong entry in the
recently-concluded Shell Eco-marathon Asia, held last July 8-10 on the
famed Sepang Formula One racetrack in Malaysia (see Austra-L-Asia #
2262). It might not have brought home the bacon, but it surely came
back to Manila rich and rejoicing for having had a wonderful stint in
said race.
Accompanying our seventeen mechanical engineering
students were Fr. Marty Macasaet (DBTC Rector), Mr. Leonardo Ablaza
(DBTC past pupil and a Shell Philippines official, designated as the
“godfather” of the team), and Engineers Stephen Ruiz (college dean) and
Paul Catalan (department head and team adviser). But the limelight
clearly belonged to the students themselves, for they were, after all,
the prime targets and main protagonists of the whole event. According
to the Shell Eco-marathon organizers, this unique fuel-efficiency
race-contest (for some time now being held annually in Europe and the
United States) is precisely for and by the youth. Faced with urgent
concerns nowadays for saving and preserving our environment through
sound ecological practices in the car industry, who else do you turn to
for fresh ideas and out-of-the-box innovations? Or, as one Filipina
journalist covering the event put it, “Young and smart minds are always
an inspiration.”
Hence DBTC’s participation too, as one of the
premier engineering schools from the Philippines chosen by Shell
Philippines to field in a team. More than eighty teams took part from
all over Asia. But having been the only Don Bosco school in Asia which
joined in the event (held in a country with no Salesian presence at
that), Team Grigio found itself in strange territory, it
seemed. But driving on tracks it is most at home with (namely —
engineering innovations, fuel efficiency, and safety procedures) its
participation alone was definitely an achievement already in itself. As
a bonus in fact, Team Grigio received a citation from contest
organizers for “demonstrating safety compliance during the three days
of the competition.” And already now it is looking forward not just to
a repeat performance same-time-same-place next year, but hopefully to a
much-improved stint — what with a lot of valuable lessons learned and
prized experiences acquired.
Because in the first place, the whole thing fits in
very well with DBTC Mandaluyong’s thrust for “technology with a soul,”
translated to its benchmark environmental and ecological projects and
activities. No regrets at all for its joining the contest, and all the
more reason still to join again in the future. Team Grigio
hopes to be back in Sepang with a louder growl. _________________ AustraLasia is an
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