Project
Formation of the Team
In 1997, Professor Dr. Coehne first suggested to take part in the challenge. Dr. Raphael Fischer, former mechanical student at the University of Applied Siences Offenburg, and Professor Dr. Kuhnt took the initiative to establish a team. The start signal was in 1998 - the first german team went to the starting line with the Schluckspecht I - result: 274 km/l. The Offenburg team grew steadily- until today they built and optimised three more vehicles. The best result was achieved by the 2008-team with the Schluckspecht III - 3189 km/l (1st place fuel cell category, 2nd place overall standings).
Teamstructure
Currently, about 30 students of the faculties M+V Maschinenbau und Verfahrenstechnik (mechanical and process engineering), E+I Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik (electrical and information engineering) and M+I Medien und Informationswesen (media and information technology) are active. The team is supervised by Prof. Dr. Hochberg. Furthermore, they are supported actively and financially by former students and sponsors.
Motivation
In this project, the students have the possibility to practically apply the curriculum of their study, and to realise ideas of their own. The tasks are performed by students of different faculties in teamwork and in individual work. It is very interesting to see how much creativity they bring to develop and realise their own ideas.
Objectives
In addition to take part in the Shell Eco-marathon, the students from Offenburg would like to develop an efficient and suitable for every day use vehicle. For that matter, a small success has already been achieved: The vehicle Schluckspecht City may use public streets for test drives.