West Philly Hybrid X team earns Popular Mechanics Next Generation Breakthrough Award

The respected West Philadelphia High School Hybrid X team has been given the Next Generation Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics magazine: Of the 111 Teams that competedfor the $10 million purse in last year’s Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, only one was from a high school—West Philadelphia, where85 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. West […]

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Oct 12, 2011 10:00am

Clockwise from left: Jeffrey Johnson, Stefon Gonzalez, Brandon Ford, Shamere Palmer, Adam Mitchell, Sydney Dickerson, Azeem Hill, Morris Bailey and Ciera Williams Dennis Kleiman Read more: The West Philly Students Who Build Supercars - 2011 Breakthrough Award Winner - Popular Mechanics

The respected West Philadelphia High School Hybrid X team has been given the Next Generation Breakthrough Award from Popular Mechanics magazine:

Of the 111 Teams that competedfor the $10 million purse in last year’s Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, only one was from a high school—West Philadelphia, where85 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. West Philly entered two vehicles—a Factory Five GTM biodiesel hybrid kit car and a converted Ford Focus gasoline plug-in hybrid—and made it to the semifinals with both. “We were going up against teams that had dozens of engineers, and we had 15 students, a couple of teachers and a dream,” says adviser Simon Hauger, a teacher in the school’s Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering. “One of the marvelous things about teenagers is they’re not daunted by that.”

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