AFTER GOING through the three stages of the international “Go Green in the City” competition, Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE) superseniors Lorenzo Payonga and Alyssa Vintola have emerged victorious.
The two won gold in the Global Finals held in Paris, France last June 27 with their alternative energy solution called Oscillation Hump or “Oscillohump.”
Go Green in the City is a competition that has students develop innovative ideas for energy solutions. Schneider Electric, a global specialist in managing energy, funded the contest.
According to Payonga, contestants were tasked with presenting an engineering concept and supporting it with a feasibility study.
Their creation, Oscillohump, harvests energy from road humps by means of electromagnetic induction.
An official press release from the Ateneo described the device’s process: “Whenever vehicles pass over the Oscillohump, they press springs which plunge magnets into solenoids that will generate power to charge a battery. The battery is then used to power DC loads such as LED street lamps, traffic lights or closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and excess energy may be fed to the power grid.”
Serving as Payonga and Vintola’s mentors for the competition were Electronics, Computer and Communications Engineering Department’s Reese Macabebe, PhD and engineer Homer Ilagan of Schneider Electric Philippines.
Contribution through innovation
Payonga explained that Oscillohump is still in its conceptual stage.
However, he added that “the potential it has is very big because, as of now, people [are not aware] that a road hump can generate electricity,” he said.
He also said that, once fully developed, Oscillohump would be a “transformation of the ordinary concrete or rubber road hump.”
Payonga further said that their creation would be turned into a power producer, which can independently power street lamps, traffic lights, CCTV cameras and other road and traffic safety facilities.
“It can also help reduce dependence on our power utilities like Meralco,” he said. He added that reduced dependence on power utilities means less consumption of fossil fuels, which pollute the environment.
Furthermore, Payong explained that Oscillohump could offer energy and cost efficiency because energy will be produced where it will be consumed.
“Given these, it has a huge potential impact to our country, where road safety and fossil-fuel energy dependence are alarming concerns,” he added.
Vintola, on the other hand, said that the team thought of producing a “smart city” by coming up with energy efficient solutions to lessen carbon emissions.
“We grounded the project in a Philippine and global context,” she said.
“We are proposing a solution that could help us have safer roads [and become] energy efficient and cost efficient,” Vintola added.
Implications for the Philippines
For Payonga, their participation in the competition showed how globally competitive Filipinos could be.
“Our participation and recent victory is another feat of Filipinos, for Filipinos and for the Philippines,” he said.
“I believe Alyssa and I are just two lucky Ateneans who were given the right opportunity, which we were able to take advantage of. We are just a subset of a greater whole,” he added.
Payonga said that he hopes their achievement will inspire not only Ateneans but also Filipinos to think of innovative ways to help the environment and use energy more efficiently.
“Likewise, I hope that this achievement will encourage our university, other universities and the government to give attention to innovative scientific and engineering research,” he said.
Dr. Macabebe, the winning team’s mentor, said she hopes Payonga and Vintola’s victory will bring pride to the country.
“I hope [this can also] encourage our young engineers to be creative and innovative,” she said.
The competition process
The Go Green in the City competition had three main stages: The Philippine Finals, the East Asia Finals and the Global Finals.
Before proceeding to the Global Finals, Payonga and Vintola had to compete in the Philippine finals against University of the Philippines-Diliman and Adamson University last April 18.
After winning the first leg of the race, Payonga and Vintola went on to Jakarta, Indonesia last May 15 to participate in the East Asia Finals.
They battled alongside seven other countries: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Payonga and Vintola competed against the Indonesian and Singaporean teams in the Global Finals.
lorenz,, gud pm i am marc louie galleros a 5th year mechanical student from central Mindanao university… i was inspired by your research oscillohumps… so i decided to create our own version of ur hump… via mechanical way by using generator, flywheel and gear tren design,,,…. so far our studies is successful and our research is already been installed in cmu campus and for every vehicle that pass our hump it produce 44v and 3 ampere .. powering street light in front of the engineering building.. im looking forward working with ur research… thanx and God bless