The BTU Lausitz Dynamics team on their way to the World Championships

The nomination for the 2027 Global Championship caps off the most successful racing season to date for the students from the Senftenberg campus. Just a few weeks earlier, they had claimed victory in the Prototype Hydrogen Fuel Cell category at the 2026 Shell Eco-marathon Poland with their self-designed, fuel-cell-powered energy-saving vehicle, the HydroRaycer. Across all categories, they achieved an outstanding seventh-place finish in June of this year at the energy efficiency competition held at the Silesia Ring in Kamień Śląski, Poland, competing against a total of 130 teams from Europe and Africa. Once again, the challenge was to cover a specified distance while consuming as little energy as possible.

Selected as one of only 19 teams

The new international competition, the World Championship, is to be held in Qatar, and only 19 teams – the best from all the Shell Eco-marathon competitions in Europe/Africa, North and South America, and Asia – will be allowed to take part. 

Prof. Dr Lars Röntzsch, dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Energy Systems at BTU, explains: “I am delighted that our student team, Lausitz Dynamics, has been nominated for the 2027 Global Championship. I congratulate them on this outstanding achievement, which is based in particular on interdisciplinary collaboration – ranging from engineering through Economic Sciences to the social sciences. Here, students learn that it is well worth engaging in-depth with alternative propulsion technologies. As dean and an enthusiast for hydrogen and fuel cell technology, I will continue to support the team and its commitment to the Shell Eco-marathon in the future.”

Global Championship presents enormous challenges

“We are very proud of the team’s achievements this season,” emphasise the academic supervisors Shadi Sykora and Sindy Schmidt. At the same time, they are well aware of the scale of the tasks ahead. The Global Championship, scheduled to take place at the Lusail International Circuit in Doha, Qatar, will not focus on traditional efficiency tests on the racetrack. In particular, the main aim is to apply advanced STEM skills, creativity and practical problem-solving abilities under pressure. What is required is interdisciplinary STEM thinking, including areas such as data science and systems innovation, collaborative teamwork to solve complex, real-world problems, and creative approaches that go beyond vehicle design and driving.

A special honour recently demonstrated that the Lausitz Dynamics student team certainly possesses the necessary potential for this. The ‘Energy-Efficient Vehicles’ module, offered as part of General Studies under the supervision of Prof. Dr Sylvio Simon, within the framework of which the project is being carried out by around 20 participating students – the majority of whom are on the dual Bachelor’s degree programme in Electrical Engineering – has been awarded the Teaching Prize by the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. This was due, amongst other things, to the thorough teaching of the technical and scientific fundamentals of fuel cell technology, energy recovery and storage, as well as vehicle engineering and aerodynamics. Interdisciplinarity and skills development – also important for the upcoming international competition – were a particular focus here.

“We are delighted to have qualified,” emphasises the academic supervisor Shadi Sykora, an engineer on the Electronic Circuit Technology chair, who has been actively involved with the Lausitz Dynamics team since his periods of study at the BTU. “The exact format of the competition is not yet known, as the Global Championship will be held for the first time in 2027. Now it’s a matter of planning the journey, preparing topics and training. Because if we’re going to take on the challenge, we want to win!”

Further information is available at:

www.b-tu.de/lausitz-dynamics and www.instagram.com/lausitz.dynamics