Students fueled by drive, learning compete in 2024 Hydrogen Grand Prix World Final in Anaheim

More than 200 students from across the globe are gathering in Anaheim this week to race home-built clean energy cars in a competition designed to teach them about renewable energy and equip them with real-world skills that will help them later in life.

Forty-five teams from 14 countries – some as far away as Germany, the Czech Republic and Australia – are participating in various races during the 2024 Hydrogen Grand Prix World Final, which continues through Wednesday, Sept. 11, at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Hydrogen Grand Prix is a science and engineering program for schools run by the California-based H2GP Foundation. Through it, students ages 12 to 19 can gain hands-on experience by engineering, building and racing 1:10-scale fuel cell electric cars powered by hydrogen.

Nicola Weiss, executive director of the foundation, said the competition prepares students for the future by introducing them to careers in the clean energy industry, and giving them the opportunity to employ innovation, problem-solving, perseverance and more in the process.

“It really gives them all the skills and tools to be successful in the workforce when they leave school,” she said.

On Tuesday, students competed in a six-hour endurance race on a large track set up inside the Convention Center’s arena. Drivers controlled their brightly-colored cars from the sidelines, carefully maneuvering around medians and other cars, while still keeping a competitive pace during hundreds of laps.

Alan Taft, an eighth grader at Richardson Middle School in Torrance, is among 45 Southern California students participating in the World Final.

As the strategist for – and captain of – the South Torrance Hydrogen Racers, it’s his job to tell the drivers when to speed up or slow down or change strategy during a race.

It’s South Torrance’s first year in the program, but team members say they’ve already learned valuable lessons so far about engineering, fuel cells, race strategies and more. They also scored a spot in the global competition even though they are still in junior high.

Although most of their competitors are in high school, team members say they hope to hold their own this week by doing more of what’s worked for them in the past: avoiding crashes, maintaining a consistent speed, and ensuring that their drivers don’t get tired.

“I feel that we have a pretty good shot at doing well,” said Taft, who hopes that the program will help prepare him for a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related career one day. “We are very nervous and excited, and ready to race.”

Members of Green Energy, an all-girls team from Laguna Creek High School outside Sacramento, were also eagerly awaiting the start of Tuesday’s competition inside the arena.

Engineer Olivia Puente said her team is the first from their school to make it to the World Final, and she is proud of the teamwork, communication, and dedication that her team has shown along the way.

Puente, a senior, said she wants to study engineering in college and participating in the contest has helped solidify her goals.

“I just love this competition,” she said. “It just made me realize even more that this is what I want to do.”

Teammate Brooklynn Cantu, a senior who serves as the team’s creative designer, said she’s learned valuable lessons about fuel cells, time management, the inner workings of the team’s car and more during her inaugural year in the program.

In addition, she says working alongside students and teachers from other countries is helping her team branch out and forge new partnerships with other schools.

“We’re making a lot of connections and I think it’s really useful,” she said.

The 2024 H2GP World Final is taking place in conjunction with RE+ 24, a large-scale clean energy industry conference also happening at the convention center this week that explores topics such as solar energy, hydrogen, EV charging and infrastructure, wind energy, and more.

Weiss said it makes for a “perfect fit,” as participating students may go on to work for some of the companies participating in the conference.

Program alumni now work for energy companies and in STEM fields such as race engineering, biomedical engineering, software engineering and even teaching, she said.

Her son, Ian, participated in the Hydrogen Grand Prix program all four years while he was a student at Edison High School in Huntington Beach and served as the head mechanic and a strategist for his team.

Today, he works as a technical director for the H2GP Foundation, supporting students “from start to finish,” with questions on everything from how to build cars to how to solve problems during races.

Ian Weiss, a computer science major at Cal State Long Beach, says he came away from the program with a greater understanding about hydrogen and other forms of renewable energy, and an interest in pursuing a STEM-related career in the future.

Assisting students prior to Tuesday’s race, he said he was looking forward to lending his expertise to teams this week.

“The event has grown massively since I was in the program and I’m excited to share it with all the students and the families and teams that are here,” he said.

Competition awards will be given out Thursday, Nicola Weiss said, in areas including car design, innovation, team spirit, and more.

Even with the competition still underway, students are already successful, Weiss said, in that they made it through numerous qualifying rounds to get to the World Final and they are learning valuable life lessons in the process.

“These kids will not give up, they will not take failure,” Weiss said. “They know that there’s always going to be a solution to anything that they face coming down the road.”