The Grupo Cataratas de Eficiencia Energetica (GCEE) was created in 2009 by second-year students of electrical engineering and mechanical engineering at Unioeste (Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Parana) in Brazil.

Last year in a national competition, among other achievements, the team was champion in the ethanol category, achieving 736 kilometers per liter (1,731 miles per gallon). With that, the team got motivated in December last year to compete in the 2012 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas.

We faced many challenges — especially financially, as the competition is approximately 10,000 kilometers (6,214 miles) away from our city, Foz do Iguassu. Aside from funding, we had to race against time to complete bureaucratic procedures for sending the car and to getting visas for all the staff. Meanwhile, all of us worked at least 14 hours per day on the prototype, which required a far superior level of quality and performance.

The energy company Itaipu Binacional offered us help